Zuma to attend fifth Sacu summit

President Jacob Zuma will attend the fifth Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) summit to be held on Friday in Swaziland, the presidency said yesterday.

Sacu, the oldest customs union in the world, comprises Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.

The summit of heads of state and government of Sacu met on an annual basis to discuss progress in implementation of the agreed work programme. The summit also followed high level consultative meetings by Zuma in 2016 to discuss the Sacu work programme.

Swaziland, as the current chair of Sacu, had successfully led discussions on the transformation of Sacu towards a developmental integration agenda.

The summit would receive and consider a report on its activities with the purpose of providing strategic direction on development integration and to ensure the Sacu agreement facilitated implementation of this agenda.

Zuma would be accompanied by Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, and Deputy Finance Minister Sfiso Buthelezi. – ANA