The Southern African People’s Solidarity Network( SAPSN) Regional Coordinating Committee comprising the Foundation for Social and Economic Justice (Swaziland), Malawi Economic Justice Network, Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC), Economic Justice Network of South Africa, Development for Peace Education and the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) notes with great concern, the unsubstantiated and ficticious claims by the Herald newspaper of the 16th of August 2019 where it published a story “Civil Society plots to smear Zim at SADC.” The claims are not only deliberate but malicious and meant to tarnish the brilliant solidarity work that has been championed by the Southern African People’s Solidarity Network (SAPSN) since its inception in 1999.
ZIMCODD is the current host secretariat of SAPSN after taking over from the Development Peace Education of Lesotho in 2018. ZIMCODD’s work is known since 2000 as an advocate for citizens’ social and economic rights. ZIMCODD thus remains focused on its mandate and as the SAPSN member and host secretariat, assert the right to freedom of association and will endeavor to advance the all-important interest of regional, national and international people to people solidarity as inspired by decades of struggle for liberation and subsequent independence of many colonized states in the region.
The SADC People’s Summit remains a peaceful platform for SADC citizens to participate in advancing climate, political, social and economic rights of citizens in theregion holding the regional bloc accountable to the commitments made in the various protocols.
Read the full statement here
