Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma has concluded his consultations with member states of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).
The President held consultation with SACU members during a working visit to the Kingdom of Lesotho, where he held talks with Lesotho Prime Minister, Dr Pakalitha Mosisili.
At 105 years, SACU is one of the oldest customs unions in the world, consisting of five members, namely Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa.
President Zuma, as the current chair of the SACU Summit, conducted working visits to the other SACU member states a month ago for similar consultations on SACU.
According to the Presidency, the consultations held on Thursday in Maseru were a follow-up from the special meeting of the SACU Council of Ministers and informal engagement of the Summit of the Heads of State and Government, which took place on 11 and 12 November 2015 on the margins of the SACU headquarters building inauguration in Windhoek, Namibia.
“The discussions focused on turning SACU into a vehicle for regional development which will benefit all the SACU members and to lay the groundwork for a Ministerial Retreat of Ministers of Finance and Trade and Industry.
“At the retreat, Ministers will look at how this can be done and the economic activities that would need to take place. Some of the economic activities could include building regional infrastructure, supply-side capacities, industrial development and value chains to stimulate regional growth and development,” said the Presidency.
The report from the Ministerial Retreat will be presented to the SACU Summit, which will contain a clear roadmap on how to take SACU forward to increase the resilience of the SACU economies and to push for greater integration of the respective economies.
While in Maseru, President Zuma also paid a courtesy call on His Majesty King Letsie III.
President Zuma was accompanied by International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana Mashabane; Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan. - SAnews.gov.za
