Senior officials from across Southern Africa have gathered in Pretoria, South Africa (SA) for the Ordinary Meeting of the 45th Southern African Development Community (SADC) Council of Ministers.<\/p>\n
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The meeting begins with the Committee of Senior Officials, which will prepare recommendations ahead of the Council of Ministers summit scheduled for March 12\u201313.<\/p>\n
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Held under the theme \u201cAdvancing Industrialisation, Agricultural Transformation, and Energy Transition for a Resilient SADC,\u201d the gathering will focus on regional development priorities and co-operation.<\/p>\n
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Chairperson of the SADC Standing Committee of Senior Officials, Tebogo Seokolo, said the meeting is taking place during a period of significant global uncertainty.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe meet at a time when the global and regional environment remains dynamic and uncertain, and I must say it is no exaggeration to describe it as dangerous,\u201d Seokolo said.<\/p>\n
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He noted that geopolitical tensions, economic volatility, climate-related shocks and disruptions to global supply chains continue to affect developing regions, including Southern Africa.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe international system continues to experience geopolitical tensions, economic volatility, climate-induced shocks and disruptions in global supply chains, all of which have direct implications for developing regions such as ours,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
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Seokolo welcomed the inclusion of an agenda item that will allow member states to reflect on the implications of global geopolitical developments.<\/p>\n
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At the same time, he said efforts towards deeper African integration remain on track, particularly through the implementation of Agenda 2063 and the African Continental Free Trade Area.<\/p>\n
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The outcomes of the senior officials\u2019 meeting are expected to guide Ministers during the upcoming council discussions aimed at strengthening regional co-operation and economic resilience.<\/p>\n
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–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14019,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-28006","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Senior officials from across Southern Africa in SA for the Ordinary Meeting of the 45th SADC Council of Ministers","published_date":"2026-03-07 11:15:53","news_description":"Senior officials from across Southern Africa in SA for the Ordinary Meeting of the 45th SADC Council of Ministers","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28007,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28006\/revisions\/28007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}