The 42nd Summit of the SADC is set to be held in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo on the 17th to the 18th of August.

The SADC Council of Ministers of Regional Integration and Francophonie of the DRC, Hon Mazenga Mukanzu took over the Chairmanship of the SADC Council of Ministers from his Malawian counterpart, Nancy Gladys Tembo.

The Council is an institution of SADC that oversees the functioning and development of SADC and ensures that SADC policies and programme are properly implemented.

This year the SADC summit is held under the theme, ‘promoting industrialization through agro-processing, mineral beneficiation; and regional value chains growth,’ which takes forward the implementation of the SADC industrialization strategy and Roadmap 2015-2063 to help SADC economies to diversify away from dependence on primary commodities into high-value manufactured products.

His Excellency Felix Antonio Tshisekedi Tshilombo will be taking over as Chairperson from his Malawian counterpart, Dr Lazarus Chakwera.

President Tshisekedi is taking over the position at a time when his country is facing political tensions with their neighbors Rwanda and the M23 rebels who have terrorized the East Part of DRC.

In terms of politics in the Southern Africa countries, Zimbabwe will be taking part in its general elections during, President Tshisekedi term.

A number of political analysists believe Zimbabwe’s upcoming elections will be ‘tightly contested’ as President E.D Mnangagwa will also be seeking his second and final term while, his main opponent from the newly formed CCC party, Advocate Chamisa will be aiming to win the Presidential race.

In Eswatini calls for the democracy to be introduced in the Kingdom have been mounting.

Many Human Rights in Eswatini will be looking forward to see how President Tshisekedi will handle this incident.

However, the first test for President Tshisekedi will be the Lesotho elections which are scheduled to be held next month.

Other major issues that President Tshisekedi will face during his term as the chairperson of SADC include: the Mozambique Insecurity; Youth Empowerment in SADC countries and Food Shortage crisis.