{"id":5898,"date":"2025-09-19T06:26:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T06:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.powershiftafrica.org\/blogs\/people-vs-power-sadc-summit-2025-madagscar"},"modified":"2026-10-28T09:47:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T09:47:43","slug":"people-vs-power-sadc-summit-2025-madagscar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/blogs\/people-vs-power-sadc-summit-2025-madagscar\/","title":{"rendered":"People Vs Power: As SADC seeks energy and industry transitions, plunder and pillage are on government cards, but the people want justice and equity"},"content":{"rendered":"

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African leaders at the 45th SADC Summit in Madagascar<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Southern Africa marked the 45th Ordinary Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government in Antananarivo this August, a very different gathering unfolded in Antsirabe. The SADC People\u2019s Summit 2025, convened by social movements, trade unions, youth, and frontline communities, offered an alternative vision rooted in justice, sovereignty, and ecological sustainability. In this article that uses the symbolism of traffic lights to drive the point home, Power Shift Africa\u2019s <\/em>KUDAKWASHE MANJONJO<\/em><\/strong> argues that a comparison of the two communiqu\u00e9s reveals stark divergences in the region\u2019s energy, industry, and infrastructure pathways.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udd34 Red lights: Where governments and people diverge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first and sharpest divergence on the visions for\u00a0SADC\u2019s energy, industry and infrastructure future\u00a0lies in energy transition and extractivism. The People\u2019s Summit called for an immediate moratorium on new fossil fuel projects, a rejection of the extractivist development model, and a just transition centred on communities and workers. Their communiqu\u00e9 warned against the \u201cnew scramble for critical minerals,\u201d describing it as green colonialism that displaces people while enriching global powers. By contrast, the Heads of State communiqu\u00e9 doubled down on industrialisation and energy transition framed around mineral exploitation, embedding Southern Africa more deeply into global supply chains. Rather than challenging extractivism, governments reaffirmed it as the foundation of economic resilience. This tension highlights the region\u2019s fault line: governments see industrial growth through resource extraction, while people see ecological destruction, displacement, and dependency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udfe0 Amber lights: Partial alignment, different emphasis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Infrastructure and finance provide spaces of partial alignment. Both sides agree on the urgency of regional infrastructure to connect economies, expand energy access, and drive industrialisation. But while governments emphasise state-led and investor-driven projects, the People\u2019s Summit envisions community-owned renewable grids, railways, and public infrastructure that prioritise equity and ecological sustainability. Similarly, both recognise the centrality of the energy transition, but clash over how to finance it. The People\u2019s Summit demands grants, reparations, and feminist climate finance, while governments continue to court loans and investment flows, risking further debt dependency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udfe2 Green lights: Shared ground in regionalism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one strong area of convergence is the commitment to regional integration and industrial transformation. Both communiqu\u00e9s highlight the African Continental Free Trade Area\u00a0(AfCFTA) and the African Union\u2019s Agenda 2063 as platforms for advancing industrialisation and trade. Yet even here, values diverge. Governments frame integration around competitiveness and growth, while people call for sovereign, ecological, and redistributive justice-led integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond Madagascar: What this means for Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The divergence between state and people\u2019s visions in SADC mirrors a wider continental debate. As the Second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2), held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the start of September 2025, positioned Africa as a \u201csolutions provider\u201d in global climate and energy transitions, the question remains: whose solutions? Governments increasingly align with global capital, pitching Africa as a source of minerals and renewable energy potential. Social movements, however, demand a deeper rethinking; one that confronts debt, ends extractivism, and centres justice, care, and sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contrasting communiqu\u00e9s from Antananarivo and Antsirabe show the urgent need for dialogue between governments and civil society. Without centering people, the energy transition risks reproducing old patterns of plunder under the guise of green growth. If Southern Africa is to build resilience, it cannot do so on extractivist foundations. True resilience will come only from solidarity, equity, and justice, and these are the values that the People\u2019s Summit continues to champion.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PEOPLE VS POWER: AS SADC SEEKS ENERGY AND INDUSTRY TRANSITIONS, PLUNDER AND PILLAGE ARE ON GOVERNMENT CARDS, BUT THE PEOPLE WANT JUSTICE AND EQUITY<\/p>","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":5899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[27,25],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-5898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","tag-climate-justice","tag-energy-transition"],"acf":{"url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5898"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9557,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898\/revisions\/9557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5898"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=5898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}