The Southern African Development Community Lawyers Association’s (SADC LA) Annual Conference and General Meeting (ACGM) was held from 28 July to 2 August 2024 in Livingstone, Zambia. Member of the Law Society of South Africa’s House of Constituents, Zincedile Tiya attended the ACGM and compiled the following report.

Business Mission Exhibition for Law, Trade and Commerce

The ACGM started with the SADC LA’s Business Mission Exhibition for Law, Trade and Commerce, which was intended to create business and networking opportunities for delegates attending the conference. According to the mission statement, the exhibition was to ‘accelerate business development potential through an impact platform that delivers globally competitive growth and value for law and commerce sector players in Southern Africa’.

The objectives of the Business Mission Exhibition were to –

• create a platform to connect businesses and the legal services sector across the Southern African region for strategic leadership and solution seeking;
• establish Southern Africa as a preferred destination for doing business in Africa;
• create a launch pad for global inward bound law and business interest firms to engage big business and the leading legal services providers in SADC;
• create a launch pad for outward business and legal services providers into the global market for trade and commerce;
• create a sector specific space dedicated to the growth in discourse between law and commerce;
• facilitate delegates’ experience and achievement of business ideals and objectives, through participation in legal sector specific events and exhibitions;
• facilitate innovation and creation of new strategies that can help make a difference in exhibition and marketing campaigns, from exhibit design, brand development to providing innovative marketing communication tools for global market players in Southern Africa and beyond; and
• contribute towards the sustainability of the SADC LA in implementing its mandate as the leading voice and umbrella body of the legal profession in Southern Africa.

The target participants that the Business Mission Exhibition wanted to target were:

• Transboundary commercial firms operating in Africa and the SADC and from Africa and SADC into the global business community.
• Law firms with cross-border legal service provision portfolios in corporate and commercial law present in Southern Africa.
• Special focus will be placed in facilitating the participation of small to medium business enterprises with the potential to develop and benefit from cutting edge legal and business solutions.
• Civic society and intergovernmental organisations with a keen interest in capacitating business and commerce in Southern Africa to discover and meet the benefits of business and human rights principles awareness.

A key outcome of the Business Mission Exhibition will be to identify and donate resources to one specific charity in need, in the host country, the charity will aim to assist children or youth initiatives.

The Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Chipoka Mulenga and the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala opened the session and demonstrated the political support that SADC LA is enjoying. A warm welcome was given to delegates by the President of the Law Association of Zambia, Lungisani Zulu, as well as from the President of the SADC LA, Dr Flavio Menete.

Women’s Forum

A Women’s Forum was held at the ACGM. This forum was well attended, and critical issues, such as the development of the profession; women empowerment; and women taking a centre stage in taking key positions of leadership were debated. The theme of the session was: ‘Women economic empowerment: Focus on gender equality and violence against women in politics’.

Young Lawyers Forum

At the Young Lawyers Forum, the theme ‘Young people taking a centre stage in broadening access to the profession and advancing legal education for the betterment of the profession’ was key to the agenda of the forum. Issues discussed and debated, included –

• broadening access to legal profession throughout the SADC region;
• issues of ethics and legal education; and
• breaking the barriers of access to justice, which include the access to courts and SADC region with one common right of appearance.

Other sessions at the ACGM

At the ACGM, several sessions pertained to human rights and economic development in the region. The Zambian Defence Force was also invited to make a presentation on the ‘Creation of peace and stability in Zambia and in the region’. The ramifications of the unrest in the Middle East and the war in Gaza perpetuated by Israel were debated by the delegates. The South African delegation was at the forefront on this topic.

Other law issues presented and discussed were –

• corporate and commercial law;
• human rights, rule of law, democracy and governance;
• practice management and contemporary issues;
• regional economic integration;
• human rights and the rule of law;
• practice management and contemporary issues;
• soft skills for law practice development – what law school did not teach you;
• corporate and commercial law; and
• human rights, rule of law, democracy and governance.

After the discussions, a wellness clinic welcomed delegates to ‘interact with your legal life-coach, hear more on how to manage your mental health, organise your personal and professional life to positively turn around the anatomy of stress in your lifestyle’. This session dealt with the fact that lawyers deal with problems from members of their community and seek solutions for them. At times some problems pertain to family law, which can be emotionally draining. This session was extremely useful to the delegates.

Council meeting

A council meeting was convened, as the term for SADC LA Councillors is two years, and a new council had to be established in terms of the SADC LA Constitution.

Many issues were discussed and the key points that were on agenda were –

• financial sustainability;
• the use of the acronym SADC LA;
• climate change;
• increase of subscription fees;
• eligibility to be elected versus members in good standing; and
• elections of new Executive Committee (Exco) of SADC LA.

New SADC LA Exco announced

The new SADC LA Exco members are –

• President – Dr Flavio Menete (Mozambique);
• Deputy President – Noxolo Maduba-Silevu (South Africa);
• Treasurer – Tania Canguia (Angola);
• Additional 1 – Rumbidzai Matambo (Zimbabwe); and
• Additional 2 – Lungisani Zulu (Zambia).

Zincedile Monde Tiya BA Law (WSU) is a Director at Zincedile Monde Tiya Inc in Mthatha. Mr Tiya serves on the EXCO of NADEL; the EXCO of the Law Society of South Africa and he is a council member of SADC LA.

This article was first published in De Rebus in 2024 (December) DR 10.