The Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) convened in Swakopmund, Republic of Namibia, from the 11 to 13 October 2023 to discuss and share experiences on emerging issues and trends in corruption in the Region.
Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies or their representatives from Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Malawi, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe attended the workshop. The workshop was also attended by partner institutions namely, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), GIZ- Global, African Union Advisory Board against Corruption (AUABC), SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF), Basel Institute on Governance and World Customs Organization (WCO). The workshop, among others, discussed the linkages between Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) and Corruption, the Continental Perspective on Combating IFFs, the SADC Region efforts to combat IFFs, the role of multi-stakeholder collaboration in addressing Corruptions, financial Crimes, and other Transnational Organised Crimes.
During the opening session of the workshop, the Director of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Affairs, Prof. Kula Ismael Theletsane, highlighted that Corruption undermines the rule of law, erodes public trust which in turn can hamper peace and security in the Region. He observed that the SADC region has the necessary frameworks and legal instruments to facilitate cooperation between the Member States in the fight against corruption which includes the SADC Protocol against Corruption, the Protocol on Mutual Legal Assistance, and the SADC Integrated Strategy to combat transnational organised crime.
On his part, the Director-General of the Anti-Corruption Commission of Namibia, Mr. Paulus Noa said that the implementation of the SADC Strategic Anti-Corruption Plan 2023-2027 which was developed to operationalise the Protocol against corruption is key to the enhancement of cooperation among the Member States to deter corruption. He added that regional cooperation is important to curb money laundering, illicit financial flows as well as other financial crimes and transnational organised crimes.
Speaking at the same event, the Chairperson of the Erongo Regional Council Management Committee, Honourable Benitha Imbamba said discussions on illicit financial flows, transnational organised crime and strengthening collaboration with other stakeholders in the fight against corruption were critical for the workshop to identify the challenges and shortcomings in the regional drive against corruption and transnational organised crime. She highlighted that these crimes cost economies financial resources that could have been channelled to the implementation of various national developmental programs.
Noting the importance of high-level multi-stakeholder information sharing platforms for law enforcement agencies to foster a collective approach and intelligence sharing and enhanced bilateral or multilateral cooperation, the meeting called for enhanced collaboration with national parliaments to leverage their constitutional mandate to facilitate domestication of regional and international instruments. In the same vein it called for the development of Model Law on Financial Crimes to harmonise the different pieces of legislation to foster cooperation, enhance beneficial ownership legislation and inter-agency dialogue between Member States to deal with backlogs of mutual legal assistance requests. The workshop further noted the need to strengthen awareness raising with the public and the media to engender effective reporting on Financial Crimes and the need to strengthen strategic partnerships between SADC and other Regional, Continental and Global Organisations to enhance regional coordination and continued capacitation of law enforcement agencies to effectively combat corruption and transnational organised crime.
