Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota says the current global security environment has thrown up serious challenges to Africa and therefore, the continent needs to assume responsibility for its own defence.

Minister Lekota told the Meeting of Southern African Development Community Defence Ministers in Pretoria today that it was imperative for African countries to form defence partnerships to face global security threats.

“We therefore need to pool our resources…for the countries in our region and on our continent face the same challenges,” said Lekota.

“Africa has now become one of the theatres of international terrorists activity. In is in this context…that we are looking at a collective approach to defence on the continent under the auspices of the African Union (AU),” said the minister.

Lekota said “each African country’s defence is inextricably linked to that of other African countries, as well as that of other regions…” He said Africa’s southern region was now “in the last stages of drawing the SADC Mutual Defence Pact”.

The Pact is aimed at stabilising the SADC region, and cultivating an atmosphere conducive to investment and long-term stability. The pact would work to provide a mechanism to prevent conflict between SADC countries, as well as with other countries, and for SADC countries to act together against aggression by outsiders.

It would also allow for SADC intervention in major conflicts between signatories, and for intervention in intra-state conflicts, which had the potential to affect the stability of the whole region.

The minister added that this had been a lengthy process but an important one.

He said the Pact was now to be signed by SADC heads-of-state, which includes South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Malawi, Angola, Tanzania and others.

Lekota also briefed the summit about the establishment of the African Standby Force and said its plans and discussions were at an advanced stage.

The meeting of SADC defence ministers is aimed at discussing the Mutual Defence Pact, African Union Common African Defence and Security Policy and the establishment of the African Standby Force. – BuaNews.