Southern Africa
SADC Industrialisation Week opens in Durban with critical minerals beneficiation on the agenda
South Africa opened the 2026 SADC Industrialisation Week at the Durban International Convention Centre on 27 July, running through 31 July as a build-up to the SADC Summit, convening policymakers, business leaders, investors, and development finance institutions from across the region. This year's programme centres on the development of regional value chains in agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, and critical minerals beneficiation, alongside infrastructure development in energy, transport, logistics, water, and ICT. The event supports the SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap (2015–2063), anchored on industrialisation, competitiveness, and regional integration. For investors tracking Southern African policy direction, the beneficiation strand is the material one: it signals that the region intends to coordinate the processing mandates currently being pursued unilaterally by Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Botswana into a bloc-level framework.
