Mutharika hails Sadc, off to Zim for summit
Malawi President Peter Mutharika on Saturday morning left the country for Zimbabwe to attend the Sadc Summit where he is expected to hand over the chairmanship to Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe.
The 34th Ordinary Meeting of Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State and Government Summit is slated for Sunday, August 17, 2014 and would end on Monday, August 18, 2014 Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.
Before departure at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe, Mutharika told journalists that Malawi’s tenure as Chairperson has seen the country benefiting a lot from regional trade with SADC member states, saying this has had a positive impact on the country’s economy.
“Since Malawi took over the SADC Chairmanship last year, the country has benefited a lot from the regional trade with member states. This has had a positive impact on our economy in terms of generating forex,” President Mutharika said.
Mutharika also commends Sadc for playing a key role in the 20 May tripartite elections which he won.
“Sadc’s timely interventions contributed to the polls being declared free, fair, credible and transparent. As you may recall, the elections were marred by accusations of irregularities which had the potential to cause political unrest which would in turn threaten our young democracy,” Mutharika said.
During the Summit, President Mutharika would present a report as outgoing SADC Chairperson on the activities undertaken during the period under review as well as hand-over the SADC Chairmanship to Mugabe.
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