SADC Parliamentary Forum and ZELA Forge Strategic Partnership to Strengthen Corporate Accountability

By Batanai Mutasa

The Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) and the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) solidified their commitment to advancing corporate accountability and sustainable development by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on June 7, 2025. The signing ceremony occurred on the sidelines of the 57th SADC PF Plenary Assembly in Victoria Falls.

This formal partnership empowers ZELA to provide support to SADC parliamentarians in designing laws and policies focused on promoting sustainable development, safeguarding human rights, and deepening regional cooperation.

It builds upon existing collaboration, notably on Business and Human Rights initiatives, where ZELA has worked to strengthen parliamentarians’ capacity to uphold human rights principles that includes transparency, participation and accountability within the extractive sector. This prior engagement helped lay the groundwork for regional progress, including the SADC PF’s adoption of a resolution to develop a regional framework on these critical issues.

Mutuso Dhliwayo, Executive Director of ZELA, emphasized the significance of the alliance in his solidarity statement: “ZELA deeply values the Forum’s indispensable leadership in fostering legislative excellence, parliamentary democracy and regional cohesion. Our longstanding engagement reflects a shared commitment to strengthening parliamentary capacity for people-centred, environmentally just development.”

 He highlighted the development of SADC Model Laws as a key avenue for collaboration under the MOU, stating these would “guide the region in crafting proactive policies responsive to pressing environmental and climate change issues that includes the exploitation of critical minerals , value addition and benefitication and respect for community rights and benefit sharing mechanisms from the exploitation of the region’s diverse and significant natural resource base”.

Dhliwayo pledged ZELA’s full support to achieve the SADC PF’s objectives based on the Forum’s current Strategic Plan running from 2024 -2028) through the partnership, including co-organizing capacity-building initiatives, sharing research and best practices, and developing regional strategies.

“Together, let us build a Southern Africa where empowered parliamentary institutions deliver on citizens’ aspirations, guided by the principles of equity, justice, fairness and sustainability,” he concluded, underscoring the partnership’s transformative potential.