Southern Africa Social Forum

At the Ethiopia ASF it was agreed in Forums needed to be organised on a more local level.

The 2003 SASF was held on the 9–12 November 2003 in Lusaka Zambia under the banner “Another Southern Africa is Possible”.

At the forum motions were passed stating that The Forum "the globalisation process, dominated by the giant transnational corporations from the North, is impacting negatively on the people [of Southern Africa]" and that the New Economic Plan for African Development (NEPAD) should be rejected "as an expression of support by certain leaders of our continent for the world’s elite at the expense of the majority".

Participants came from South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe The event organisers had been put under pressure from the Zimbabwean police who warned speakers that any criticism of Robert Mugabe would lead to the event being closed down.

According to Charie Kimber, writing in the Socialist Worker "Half of the watching police were nodding along in agreement".