The Prohibition of Torture and Ill-treatment in the African Human Rights System: A HANDBOOK FOR VICTIMS AND THEIR ADVOCATES southern African member States.128 The predecessor to the SADC was the Southern African Development Coordinating Conference, which was established in 1980 under a Memorandum of Understanding. In 1992, the SADC Declaration and Treaty was adopted, effectively transforming the Southern African Development Coordinating Conference into the SADC. Article 16 of the 1992 Treaty provides for the establishment of the SADC Tribunal (SADCT), whose ‘composition, powers, functions, procedures and other related matters’ will be prescribed in a Protocol adopted by the Summit.129 The SADCT was formally established through a Protocol adopted in 2000, which sets out the composition, organisation, jurisdiction and rules of procedure of the Tribunal. The Tribunal was only inaugurated in 2005 during the SADC Summit in Windhoek, Namibia, when members of the Tribunal were appointed.130 In 2010, following a series of decisions against Zimbabwe, the Summit of the SADC Heads of State announced the commencement of a review of the Tribunal’s functions, which resulted in its suspension. In August 2012, the Tribunal’s jurisdiction to hear cases by natural and legal persons was curtailed and later that year the Tribunal was disbanded.131 In November 2013, the president of South Africa confirmed that a new protocol regarding the Tribunal is in the process of being negotiated.132 However, even if the Tribunal is reinstated or a new institution for resolving disputes in the SADC is created, its jurisdiction is likely to remain limited to interpretation of the SADC Treaty and Protocols relating to disputes between Member States only.133 a) Mandate, Composition and Jurisdiction The SADCT was mandated to ensure ‘adherence to and the proper interpretation of the provisions of the SADC Treaty and its subsidiary bodies’.134 The Tribunal was made up of ten members – five permanent and five temporary members – who 128 Member States of the SADC are: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 129 Treaty of the Southern African Development Community [hereinafter, ‘SADC Treaty’], adopted on 17 August 1992, entered into force on 30 September 1993 and modified by the 2001 Agreement Amending the SADC Treaty on 14 August 2001. 130 Protocol on the Tribunal in the Southern African Development Community [hereinafter, ‘SADCT Protocol’], passed on 7 August 2000 and amended in 2000, 2007, and 2008 by the SADC, 131 See Zvamaida Murwira, “Southern Africa: Regional Leaders Permanently Disband SADC Tribunal“, All Africa (21 August 2012), available at http://allafrica.com/stories/201208210893.html. 132 See “Zuma suggests alternative to SADC tribunal” TimesLive, 6 November 2013 available at http:// www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2013/11/06/zuma-suggests-alternative-to-sadc-tribunal. 133 SADC Heads of State and Government, 32nd Summit, Maputo (Mozambique), Final Communiqué (18 August 2012), para. 24. 134 SADC Treaty, Article 16(1). 40