SADC pushes integration amid immigration cloud

SA formally took over the Southern African Development Community (SADC) chair today with President Cyril Ramaphosa urging speedier SADC regional economic integration. Legalbrief notes that the summit, being held in Durban, SA, comes amid strained relations with its neighbours who have expressed hurt and anger over how it's handling the country's anti-immigration troubles. During his opening address, Ramaphosa warned that the SADC's regional integration is moving too slowly, with intra-regional trade accounting for only about one-fifth of the bloc's total trade despite decades of efforts to deepen economic cooperation. Addressing the 46th Ordinary Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government, Ramaphosa said the region recorded economic growth of about 3.4% in 2025 but it had yet to unlock the full potential of its regional market after ‘decades of integration’. IoL reports that Ramaphosa said SADC countries continued to import goods that could be produced within the region, while exporting raw materials that could be processed locally. He said the region's more than 400m people were expecting the benefits of economic integration to translate into ‘economic liberation’ with ‘decent jobs, growing industries, reliable electricity, affordable food, quality healthcare, education and opportunities for young people’. He called for faster implementation of the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan 2020-2030, with greater focus on regional infrastructure, energy, water, digital connectivity, agriculture and trade. He said SADC needed roads, railways and modern ports that connected countries and opened opportunities for rural communities, border towns and underserved areas.

Ramaphosa also called for stronger regional co-operation on energy and water security, including expanded electricity generation and transmission capacity through the Southern African Power Pool, notes IoL. He said SADC should also make greater use of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which would give regional businesses access to a continental market of more than 1.4 bn people. However, he said, countries needed to remove non-tariff barriers, improve border management, harmonise standards and make it easier for goods, services, capital and skills to move across the region. He warned that economic development could not be separated from peace, security and democratic stability and called for continued investment in preventive diplomacy, mediation and political dialogue, as well as stronger regional institutions. Ramaphosa said the summit should be judged by the decisions implemented rather than simply the declarations adopted.

SA will push its neighbours to speed up implementation of a two-decade-old protocol on the free movement of people within the SADC during the heads of state regional bloc meeting today, reports News24. Pretoria is doing so as part of a report to the 16-nation bloc on the crisis it faced in recent months when an orchestrated campaign against foreigners forced tens of thousands of Africans to leave the country. The majority of those who were repatriated came from SADC countries, and a large percentage were no longer legally in the country when they left, having overstayed their visas. The matter is emerging as one of the major talking points at the summit. Pretoria raised it earlier this week at the customary report of the Foreign Minister of the incoming chair to counterparts. Ambassador Tebogo Seokolo, the deputy director-general for Africa in the Department of International Relations & Co-operation (Dirco) and Pretoria’s SADC sherpa, said it prompted an open discussion in which fellow members of the bloc expressed hurt over what their citizens had endured. ‘To be frank, the region has conveyed a message that they are hurt by the manner in which the challenge of migration manifested,' said Seokolo, without naming the countries. On Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa issued a mea culpa while delivering a public lecture on SADC at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Westville Campus.

The intimidation and violence, plus disagreement as to whether their countries of origin should help to cover the cost of what became a mass deportation drive, have complicated SA’s ascension to the SADC chair in a context where Pretoria wants to use its role to hasten much-delayed regional integration. Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema is not attending the summit because he is contesting national elections, but in comments to the media over the weekend, recalled his nation’s historic support for SA’s liberation movement. ‘Why should we separate ourselves now, now that you have the freedom? That is the homework that South Africans must really mark, and mark properly. What is happening there is wrong,’ he said. An official at Dirco on Sunday dismissed reports that some member states, notably Mozambique and Zimbabwe, were resisting a formal discussion at the summit on the protocol on the free movement of people, according to News24. The official added that SA would appeal to its neighbours to move ahead with the much-delayed implementation of the protocol on the free movement of people. The Protocol on the Facilitation of Movement of Persons was adopted in Gaborone on 18 August 2005, but as with many of the 30-odd protocols adopted by the bloc, it remains a reality on paper only. It enjoins member states to harmonise their immigration laws to allow SADC citizens to enter any member state visa-free for 90 days a year.

Article 14 states: ‘The visit is for a maximum period of ninety (90) days per year but without prejudice to the visitor’s right to apply for the extension of such period if a longer stay is deemed necessary, subject to the laws of the State Party concerned.’ It also means that countries that still impose visa requirements on other SADC nations must abolish them, and it compels all member states to contribute to border control. This includes establishing ‘a sufficient number of border crossing points into the territory of another state party with identical opening hours on each side of the border and ensuring that at least one such post remains open twenty-four hours every day’. Various articles in the protocol safeguard SADC nationals from persecution or arbitrary expulsion from member states. Malawi, which repatriated more than 56 000 of its citizens in recent months, in July became the 10th SADC member to sign the protocol. However, it will come into force only once it has been ratified by two-thirds of the member states. SA wants its term as SADC chair, a role it has already held on an interim basis since October, when Madagascar had to relinquish it following a coup, to be a catalyst for regional integration. The region of just under 400m is home to 30% of the world’s known critical mineral deposits, yet its average per capita income is around $2 000. Intra-regional trade is only 21%. In meetings in the run-up to the summit, South African officials have argued that more regional trade, industrialisation through strategic infrastructure development, and a common strategy were urgently needed to leverage development. The protocol on the movement of people is intrinsic to these efforts, as it facilitates labour mobility, cross-border service supply, and market integration, states News24.

A sea of police officers and private security personnel gathered around the Durban City Hall yesterday– dwarfing the number of protesters who turned up for the March and March movement’s anti-foreigner demonstration. Protesters were planning to march from City Hall to the International Convention Centre where the summit is being held. In the interim, the movement has now called for the deportation of all undocumented foreigners by 30 September 2026, and announced what it describes as the second wave of its 30 June national day of action. It says it is now in a stronger position to stage what it labels the ‘mother of all National Day of Action’ protests against illegal immigration. KZN police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said yesterday’s deployment was based on information provided by the organisers during planning meetings, where police were told that about 3 000 people were expected to participate, reports News24. He said police had to ensure there were enough officers to manage the march while maintaining the safety and security of the wider city. Netshiunda also said the police had ‘upped their game’ because of the event's scale and the presence of regional leaders.

Ramaphosa has publicly admitted that South Africans are ‘deeply concerned and ashamed’ that foreign nationals have been forced to flee the country under threat of violence, reports News24. At the public lecture on Friday, Ramaphosa said if the region was serious about integration, it must build a southern Africa in which the equal rights of all people were respected, and all people were treated decently. He said people from other nations, some of whose leaders were in attendance, ‘were treated badly and were even forced to leave the country under threat of violence’. Ramaphosa said the criminal actions of a few within SA’s communities were ‘a repudiation of the solidarity upon which this (SADC) community was founded’. ‘We cannot preach integration at summits and practise exclusion in our streets …’ Ramaphosa’s admission follows anti-immigration protests which swept across SA in recent months. Tens of thousands of foreign nationals fled SA. In some instances, foreign-owned shops were looted, and some foreign nationals were assaulted. There were a number of fatalities, including two Mozambican men and a Malawian, Mishack Banda. March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma has called on supporters to stage a protest on the sidelines of the summit.

On Sunday, during the opening session of the SADC Organ Troika on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation, member states focused on threats to the region’s relative stability, continues the News24 report. They voiced concern over the humanitarian crisis in the eastern DRC, where an Ebola outbreak has claimed more than 2 000 lives while a fragile peace process barely holds. SADC’s executive secretary, Elias Magosi, said the region remained relatively stable, but the bloc was closely monitoring developments in the DRC and in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province. The DRC has been gripped by armed conflict for decades, and despite a US-brokered peace agreement signed in December 2025, fighting and insecurity have persisted, with both sides accusing each other of ceasefire violations. SADC’s own military mission in the DRC, which deployed troops from SA, Malawi and Tanzania, completed its withdrawal last year after the bloc’s extraordinary summit in March 2025 terminated its mandate. Compounding the crisis is the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC, caused by the Bundibugyo virus. SA’s SADC sherpa, Tebogo Seakolo, told News24 that the bloc was determined that the region and the African Union should play a central role in ending the conflict in the DRC.

On Mozambique, Magosi said the launch of an inclusive national dialogue was an important step towards political consensus after the outcome of the 2024 elections was disputed. The October 2024 elections, won by Frelimo candidate Daniel Chapo, triggered widespread protests that left more than 300 people dead over three months. The government launched a national dialogue with opposition leaders in March 2025 to address the political crisis, though analysts have warned that the socio-economic grievances driving the post-electoral unrest share common roots with the Cabo Delgado insurgency. Magosi said SADC also remained engaged in supporting dialogue and national reconciliation in Madagascar. ‘Through diplomatic engagement, mediation efforts, and the work of the panel of elders, progress has been made towards constitutional reform, democratic governance, and the restoration of political stability.’ Madagascar has been in political transition since October 2025, when then-President Andry Rajoelina was ousted following mass protests, aaccording to News24. Colonel Michaël Randrianirina, who is currently in SA and held a bilateral meeting with Ramaphosa ahead of the summit, now leads a transitional government. In June, SADC expanded the mandate of its panel of elders, led by former Malawian President Joyce Banda, which is helping the country prepare for a national dialogue as a precursor to fresh elections.

Three people, includ­ing two Con­golese, have been arres­ted for allegedly attempt­ing to cir­cum­vent accred­it­a­tion and access con­trol meas­ures at the summit. According to The Herald, the arrests were con­firmed by the National Joint Oper­a­tional and Intel­li­gence Struc­ture (Nat­joints) yes­ter­day as secur­ity oper­a­tions around the sum­mit venue remain heightened. Police spokes­per­son Bri­gadier Ath­l­enda Mathe said the two Con­golese were arres­ted on Sat­urday after allegedly attempt­ing to enter the sum­mit venue using accred­it­a­tion that had not been issued to them. 'The two Con­golese nation­als face charges of fraud, imper­son­a­tion and con­tra­ven­tion of the Safety at Sports and Recre­ational Events Act, relat­ing to enter­ing a des­ig­nated area without author­isa­tion. Their iden­tit­ies and the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the attemp­ted access are sub­ject to fur­ther invest­ig­a­tion. The sus­pects were detec­ted at an access con­trol point when their iden­tit­ies did not cor­res­pond with the accred­it­a­tion presen­ted and were imme­di­ately arres­ted,’ Mathe said. The accred­it­a­tion allegedly belonged to another per­son. The latest arrests fol­low the arrest earlier in the week of a Zim­b­ab­wean who allegedly attemp­ted to obtain accred­it­a­tion by present­ing him­self as a per­form­ing artist. Mathe said the Zim­b­ab­wean faced a charge relat­ing to being illeg­ally in SA.