The need to transform the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF) into a fully-fledged regional parliament – the SADC Parliament resolution – received overwhelming support from member Parliaments yesterday.
In its plenary assembly session yesterday, the 58th SADC PF currently underway in Durban considered the reports of member parliaments in implementing the resolutions taken at the 57th plenary session held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe in June 2025.
The Speaker of South Africa’s National Assembly, Ms Thoko Dididza, said she hopes that the region could soon remove the F in SADC PF and remain with the P for SADC Parliament. She also called for this to be implemented in 2026. As a means to execute the resolution, the 57th plenary session developed a draft protocol on the operational modalities for the SADC Parliament and asked all member states to submit their comments by 30 October 2025.
Submitting South Africa’s position on the matter, Speaker Didiza said her country complied with the deadline and is in full support of the SADC Parliament. A majority of other member parliaments also met the deadline and submitted their comments accordingly. However, Malawi and Lesotho were still experiencing challenges in complying with the deadline.
Angola also pledged its support for the regional Parliament and argued that a democratic, cohesive SADC with legitimacy among its citizens requires a strong, independent and functional regional parliament. An Angolan representative said: “For this reason, Angola, unequivocally advocates for the transformation of the Parliamentary Forum into a regional Parliament with full political and functional autonomy and the capacity to oversee regional policies and the power of legislative initiative in matters of integration and active participation in defining the organisation’s strategic priorities.”
Furthermore, according to the Angolan representative, after analysing the draft protocol for the transformation of the forum into a regional parliament, Angola was convinced that the document respects the principle of gradualism and the powers envisaged for the initial phase and is therefore in favour of its adoption.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) also supported the idea of transformation of the forum to a regional Parliament. The DRC representative told the session that the country is in the process of ratifying the agreement on this important issue.
The Eswatini delegate stated that the issue is an agenda item of long-standing, indicating its importance. The Eswatini Parliament has commented positively on the matter and agreed on the necessity of establishing a regional SADC Parliament.
A Lesotho delegate said Lesotho also supports the transition but has not been able to make written comments on the draft protocols yet, due to delays in consolidating comments. However, this process will be completed soon.
In expressing its support for the transition, Madagascar stated that it considers capacity building of parliaments a critical mechanism to improve parliamentary oversight on government action. “We are fully supporting the transition of the SADC Parliamentary Forum to a SADC Parliament with a strengthened mandate, and we will be monitoring the ratification processes. We are ready to support the implementation of the protocol on the operationalisation of this parliamentary organ.”
Malawi was one of the first countries to sign an agreement amending the SADC Treaty to establish the SADC Parliament following the resolution of the 45th SADC Summit in Madagascar in August 2025. However, it has not yet submitted its comments on the draft protocol operationalising the SADC Parliament, although the country hopes to do so soon once the bottlenecks have been removed.
Mozambique has also signed the agreement amending the SADC Treaty to establish the regional Parliament and is among the countries that have complied with the deadline to submit comments on the protocol.
Namibia has also submitted its comments in line with the deadline and added that “With Namibia being the host of the SADC PF, [the country] has a special responsibility to ensure that the protocol is legally sound while promoting democracy and regional integration. Namibia further reiterated its unwavering commitment to continue hosting SADC PF institution as it undergoes structural changes resulting from the transformation process.”
Seychelles submitted that it has been an active supporter of the transformation of the SADC Parliamentary Forum into a fully-fledged SADC Parliament and signed the agreement amending the SADC Treaty to establish the regional parliament, demonstrating political commitment at the highest level. Seychelles further submitted that it is a small, high-income state with many international commitments and financial challenges may impact on its participation in the operations of the SADC Parliament.
Zambia reported that it became the 11th member state to sign the agreement amending the SADC Treaty to establish the SADC Parliament. The country had also reaffirmed its stance on the move from a forum to a parliament during the 56th Plenary Assembly of the SADC PF, which it hosted in December 2025.
Although representatives from Botswana, Mauritius and Zimbabwe did not orally submit their views on the matter, they did express their support for the regional Parliament when the adoption of the reports of all countries was moved and seconded without any objections.
Temba Gubula
3 December 2025
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