Regional Economic Integration

Throughout southern Africa the most commonly cited justification for regional economic integration is the small size of the region&s;s individual economies. This chapter examines the region&s;s most important integrative institutions: Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). SADC is the successor organisation to the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC) whose primary objective was to reduce the region&s;s dependence on apartheid South Africa. SADCC also failed in its endeavours to promote meaningful progress towards regional economic integration. In August 1996 eleven out of the then twelve SADC members signed a &s;Protocol on Trade&s; which committed signatories to establish a Free Trade Area (FTA). The FTA will result in a loss of customs revenues, upon which many of the poorer SADC countries depend. SACU has its origins firmly embedded in a colonial policy that aimed to incorporate the High Commission Territories (HCTs) into South Africa.