His Excellency Mr. Ahmad Sharif, Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the Republic of South Africa paid a courtesy call to His Excellency Mr. Elias Magosi, the Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to formally present his letters of credence.
The presentation took place during a meeting held at the SADC Secretariat office in Gaborone, Botswana on 8th April 2026.
Ambassador Mr. Ahmad Sharif had previously presented his letters of credence to the Government of the Republic of Botswana on 24 February 2025. He succeeds His Excellency Mr. Issa Sharriff, whose tour of duty ended in September 2024.
The Arab Republic of Egypt maintains resident embassies in 11 SADC Member States, namely Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
H. E. Mr. Magosi extended a warm welcome to H.E. Mr. Ahmad Sharif and expressed sincere appreciation to Egypt’s continued commitment to cooperation with SADC. He noted that the Secretariat looks forward to working closely with His Ambassador Sharif and building on the efforts of his predecessor to advance practical areas of collaboration, with a view to further strengthening the partnership between SADC and the Arab Republic of Egypt for the mutual benefit of both parties.
He informed H.E Ambassador Mr. Ahmad Sharif that SADC`s priority areas are guided by the SADC Vision 2050 and the overarching priorities of the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP 2020-2030). These are anchored on a firm foundation of Peace, Security, and Democratic Governance, and are premised on the following Pillars:
(a) Industrial Development and Market Integration.
(b) Infrastructure Development in Support of Regional Integration.
(c) Social and Human Capital Development; and
(d) Crosscutting Issues, including Gender, Youth, Environment, Climate Change; and Disaster Risk Management.
The SADC Executive Secretary noted that the Arab Republic of Egypt is signatory to the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite and has ratified the Free Trade Area (FTA) Agreement, establishing the Free Trade Area, thereby opening its market to nine SADC Member States of Angola, Botswana, Kingdom of Eswatini, Kingdom of Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
His. Excellency Ambassador Mr. Ahmad Sharif expressed appreciation for the warm welcome and highlighted Egypt`s continued commitment to, and existing cooperation with SADC through its Member States. He also conveyed Egypt`s readiness to explore new avenues for expanding this cooperation, including through the Memorandum of Understanding currently under discussion with the SADC Secretariat.
Both SADC and Arab Republic of Egypt are strong proponents of the Tripartite Free Trade Area, which brings together SADC, COMESA and the East African Community with the aim of eliminating trade barriers and promoting regional value chains. Both parties actively participate in Tripartite initiatives and programmes to accelerate the movement of goods and capital and have engaged in meetings to advance the implementation of of the TFTA objectives.
