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The former Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Tomaz Salomão, is in favour of a frank debate, especially with South Africans, so as to clarify that the freedom they enjoy is closely linked to the sacrifices made by other countries in the region.
“The South African brothers forget that they are where they are today thanks to countries like Angola, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia, which suffered the violence of the apartheid regime. It is easy to forget this, but at some point we must remind them that today we are where we are and, if possible, we could be in other positions if we had not ourselves confronted this sad reality,” Salomão said on Radio Mozambique’s Café da Manhã programme.
Asked if the region could achieve stability while the main power in the area, South Africa, faced recurring bouts of xenophobia, Salomão recalled that “those who helped the South Africans to free themselves from apartheid were Angolans, in a battle in southern Angola in which, for the first time, an African army was able to ground South African aviation, and from there they understood that the balance of forces here in the region had changed … “.
“So sometimes we need to call on our brothers and sisters to be careful, that things are not quite like this … We do not ask for the houses in the city of Matola to be bombed by South African aviation, but we must sometimes remind them of this,” Salomão said.
He also said that for that to happen, it was necessary to have a debate, to talk openly and to give out the message on different levels and to institutions that, “the South Africans will not win this battle on their own”.
“We need to see if we can establish a common platform and agenda, not just a political responsibility agenda, but one in which the private sector and civil society are called upon to participate in the process of transformation. This is where I say that educational establishments and research institutions have a fundamental role in helping countries find the best policy to lead us out of this situation.”
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