From Treaties to the Street: Why Non-State Actors Are the Real Engine of SADC Integration
From the Executive Director, Mandla Mbongeni Hadebe
The complete and successful integration of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) cannot happen in boardrooms alone. It requires a monumental effort from civil society, faith groups, labour, and business — all pushing for regional cooperation from the ground up. What makes this difficult is a glaring gap: the missing SADC Parliament. Without it, the region is losing billions and leaving accountability at the border.
“Right now, capital and minerals move freely. Accountability does not.”
Integration Is More Than Government Paperwork
Non-State Actors — Civil Society Organisations, labour unions, private sector bodies, and faith-based groups — drive the bottom-up side of integration. Governments set policy. NSAs deal with lived realities: cross-border trade for small traders, migrant worker rights, community displacement, and the ethics of how resources are shared.
Highlights from the Alternative Mining Indaba 2026
From 9-11 February 2026, activists, theologians, grassroots organisers, mining-affected communities, policymakers, youth movements, and civil society actors gathered in Cape Town under the theme “Alternative Stories of Mining — United in Solidarity with the Mining-Affected Communities across the Continent.”
The Economic Justice Network of FOCCISA played an active and visible role throughout AMI 2026, participating in strategic side events, movement-building dialogues, faith-based engagements, media advocacy, and international solidarity conversations. EJN’s advocacy gained continental visibility through publications in Mail & Guardian (South Africa) and The Star Kenya.
Building People’s Power to Confront Extractive Power
EJN convened a high-level fireside chat in partnership with the Open Society Foundations on 11 February 2026, bringing together over 100 activists, movement leaders, researchers, theologians, and mining-affected communities from across Africa and the Global South. The dialogue challenged dominant assumptions around beneficiation, development, and energy transition.
From Protest to Policy
In March 2026, EJN collaborated with the SADC Parliamentary Forum during the Technical Working Group meeting of the Standing Committee on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment (TIFI) in Johannesburg — reflecting a growing recognition that economic justice struggles must increasingly shape regional governance and legislative frameworks.