Abstract
While mediation efforts cannot lead to holistic societal transformations overnight, this chapter argues that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has singularly failed to lay the groundwork for such transformations in its region. In reviewing the cases of SADC mediation and involvement in Lesotho, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe, the chapter probes why the organization has been unable to fulfill its long-term agenda for sustainable peace. To improve its prospects, SADC should seek to support long-term solutions which hinge both on the demilitarization of politics and investment in effective institutions of participation and development. The chapter uses as its departure point the systemic conflict transformation (SCT) framework to explain how SADC might achieve what is referred to in academic literature as “positive peace.”