SOUTHERN African member states have been accused of reducing themselves to world-famous beggars whenever they interact with potential investors despite an abundance of resources that should be bettering the lives of their citizens.
With unparalleled deposits of gold, platinum, diamonds and other precious stones, the Alliance for Zambia Informal Economy (AZIE) president Poster Jumbe reckons the region should be past 'stone-age' problems that currently trouble its people.
Jumbe was speaking to NewZimbabwe.com on the sidelines of the SADC People's Summit, which is being held parallel to the SADC Heads of State Summit in Harare.
The People's Summit is a meeting between the region's civil society members and citizens, meant to discuss issues troubling them and the region.
"SADC has a lot of natural resources which once member states work together can unlock unequalled benefits for its people," said Jumbe.
"Because member states are not seeing benefits to approaching certain deals as a unit rather than individual countries, we are seeing them resorting to begging.
"This is what we are seeing. They are receiving representatives from developed countries without this united front, without benchmarks or standards regards mining and any other resources SADC."
President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his late predecessor Robert Mugabe are known to have widely publicised 'mega deals' whose benefits are yet to be realised by the ordinary.
Lithium and gold mining concessions, granted to companies either from more developed countries or those aligned to Zanu PF bigwigs have been flagged.
Touted as Zimbabwe's solution to a never-ending economic crisis, their operations have failed to alleviate lives as was expected and well-publicised.
Added Jumbe: "We need to protect our resources. It is only after we protect our resources as a united front that we will realise meaningful development from them. Is it not that all of them talk of doing things without leaving anyone behind?
"They should make sure that natural resources taken from the SADC region benefit its people, adding value within the member states.
"They need to unite and come up with benchmarks for these deals while considering adding value to resources.
"We can easily send our own people for skills transfer to these developed countries."
