South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has told Southern African 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 and Government, which was attended by His Majesty King Mswati III, Botswana President Advocate Duma Boko, Namibia President Dr. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and Lesotho Prime Minister Samuel Matekane, SACU Council of Ministers, parliamentarians and senior government officials here.
“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 Eswatini under the leadership of His Majesty King Mswati III in the wake of COVID-19 that they came up with a re-imagined 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 empire, two world wars, the Great Depression, the struggle against colonialism and apartheid, the birth of independent African States and the transformation of our region,” he said.
President Ramaphosa said few institutions anywhere in the world had 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.
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“In this increasingly contested global trading system, the need for Africa to strengthen its economic resilience has become all the greater. A re-imagined 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 (AfCFTA) 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% 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,” he said.
“It is through regional integration that our region will continue to strengthen economic sovereignty,” the SACU chairman said.
