CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – His Majesty King Mswati III has issued a powerful call for a unified and deliberate joint approach to the future of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).
In his statement to the 9th Summit of SACU Heads of State or Government, the Monarch emphasised that deeper regional integration is no longer merely an aspiration but a strategic economic necessity to cushion member States against severe global instabilities.
The high-level summit, held under the chairmanship of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, brought together regional leaders including Botswana’s President Advocate Duma Gideon Boko, Namibia’s President Dr Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, and Lesotho’s Prime Minister Samuel Ntsokoane Matekane.
Addressing the assembly, His Majesty noted that since the last summit hosted by Eswatini in June 2023, the global economic landscape has deteriorated significantly. He pointed to heightened geopolitical competition, rising protectionism, international supply chain disruptions and the increasing use of unilateral trade measures that leave SACU nations highly vulnerable to escalating energy, transport and production costs.
“These developments remind us that regional integration is no longer simply an aspiration. It is an economic necessity and a strategic instrument for protecting our countries from external shocks,” the King declared. “Our collective response must be deliberate, practical and focused on building productive capacity within our own region.”
The King firmly advocated for policy coherence and collective engagement when dealing with international trading partners, warning that fragmented or separate negotiations by individual member States risk compromising the integrity of the common external tariff and diminishing the bloc’s overall negotiating leverage.
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No country can survive alone, we are stronger together – Ramaphosa
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has told Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) leaders that no country, no matter its size can survive the current global economic shifts by itself.
The president made these remarks when he officially opened the 9th Summit of the SACU Heads of State or Government, which was attended by His Majesty King Mswati III, Botswana President Duma Boko, President Dr Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of Namibia and Prime Minister Samuel Matekane of Lesotho, SACU Council of Ministers, Parliamentarians and senior government officials.
“We gather today at a moment when the global economy is being reshaped before our eyes. Trade patterns are changing. New technologies are redrawing industrial competitiveness. Supply chains are being reconfigured. Around the world, nations are reorganising themselves for a far more uncertain future. “In such a world, no African country, regardless of size, can prosper alone. Our strength will increasingly depend on the strength of our region,” the president said. He said it was during the 8th Summit held in the Kingdom of Eswatini under the leadership of His Majesty the King in the wake of COVID-19 that they came up with a reimagined SACU agenda to overcome the challenges posed then. “We agreed on the need for a coordinated response to tackle supply chain disruptions as well as food and energy market volatility. It is at this moment when a re-imagined SACU agenda matters. SACU has lived through empires, two world wars, the Great Depression, the struggle against colonialism and apartheid, the birth of independent African States and the transformation of our own region,” he said. President Ramaphosa said few institutions anywhere in the world have demonstrated such endurance.
He said three years on, the global economic environment remains precarious and uncertain. The president stated that it is marked by trade tensions, tariff disputes, supply chain disruptions and growing economic fragmentation.
“In this increasingly contested global trading system, the need for Africa to strengthen its economic resilience has become all the greater. A reimagined SACU therefore becomes the vehicle which would enable our region to navigate the turbulent economic environment that the current moment continues to present us with,” he said.
The president and SACU chairman said through frameworks such as the African Continental Free Trade Area and mechanisms like SACU, they want to enhance intra-African commerce and trade. He said they need to build resilience and reduce the economic dependencies that render African economies vulnerable to the whims of international trade. The certainties upon which the international trading system rested for decades are steadily giving way to uncertainty. “The decline in official development assistance has affected members of our union. The World Bank estimates that global growth will slow to 2.5 percent this year because of the conflict in the Middle East. The SACU economies have, however, proven to be resilient against external shocks, supported by stronger regional integration, the diversification of export destinations and effective risk-mitigation measures. It is through regional integration that our region will continue to strengthen economic sovereignty,” the SACU chairman said.
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SACU must evolutionise beyond revenue collection - King warns
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) must urgently transition from being viewed primarily as a mechanism for collecting and distributing customs revenue into a fully-fledged developmental economic community, His Majesty King Mswati III has urged.
Reflecting on the mid-term review of the SACU Strategic Plan, His Majesty welcomed the progress achieved across its core pillars but directly acknowledged that implementation has fallen short of the pace originally envisioned. While Eswatini supports the formal extension of the Strategic Plan to the 2028/2029 financial year, the King insisted that timelines must not be pushed back without resolving the underlying institutional bottlenecks.
He called for the extension to be paired with a strictly costed, prioritised and time-bound implementation framework, backed by robust monitoring mechanisms. “Our citizens will ultimately measure the success of SACU not by the number of strategies we adopt, but by the industries established, investments mobilised, markets opened, borders modernised and jobs created,” the King stated. As part of this developmental shift, the King highlighted the progress under the trade facilitation and logistics programme, notably the expansion of the regional Authorised Economic Operator programme and successful joint customs enforcement operations against illicit trade.
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SACU potential not yet fully unleashed
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – SACU Chairman and South Africa’s President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa has told the region’s economic bloc leaders that SACU’s potential has not yet been fully explored.
Speaking when opening the 9th Summit of the SACU Heads of State or Government yesterday, the president stated that SACU has the potential to be more than just a fiscal instrument. “It must be a catalyst for development. We therefore welcome the progress towards establishing a Regional Development Fund in partnership with the African Development Bank. SACU must be able to adapt its frameworks and instruments to advance industrialisation, strengthen regional value chains, promote economic diversification, attract investment and improve the economic competitiveness of member States,” he said.
He said it is time to move away from the traditional role of SACU as a customs arrangement and move towards being the premier platform for regional economic resilience and self-reliance. “This is essential because institutions that fail to adapt to changing realities ultimately become custodians of the past rather than architects of the future. Commendable progress has been made in a number of areas. Our ambition must be nothing less than building Southern Africa into one of the world’s most competitive regional production hubs. “In agriculture, for example, there has been valuable cooperation by farmers across member States on citrus and sugar cane production. There has been important cooperation between South Africa and Botswana on foot-and-mouth disease vaccines.
“We acknowledge the work of the SACU Task Team on Automotive and Mineral Beneficiation that convened in April in Maseru. Its focus is on the development of the battery value chain and cross-border component manufacturing in the auto and mining sectors. “Eswatini’s manufacturing base, Lesotho’s textile sector, Namibia’s green hydrogen and uranium processing potential, Botswana’s diamond beneficiation experience and South Africa’s automotive and steel capacity should be harnessed towards a regional industrial ecosystem that can compete in the global economy,” he said. The president and SACU chairman said industrialisation is the only durable path from commodity dependence to an economy capable of sustaining growing populations. He said the next chapter in SACU’s history must be written not in customs schedules alone, but in factories that produce, laboratories that innovate, railways that connect economies and young people whose talents are fully realised. President Ramaphosa said with Africa holding approximately 30 per cent of the world’s mineral reserves, SACU needs to leverage the growing global demand for critical minerals to support Africa’s regional value chains and to fast-track the beneficiation of Africa’s raw materials. “To make use of these opportunities, we must continue to invest in shared infrastructure.
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