The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes South Africa’s hosting of the 9th Summit of the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) at Cape Town’s International Convention Centre 2 this Friday, 26 June. President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to open and address the gathering.
Established in 1910, SACU is the oldest functioning customs union. It enables free movement of goods across borders without customs duties or quantity restrictions among its member states – Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. The Summit is SACU’s highest decision-making structure, providing strategic and political direction as well as overseeing the implementation of programmes and priorities.
Members countries apply a uniform tariff and trade rules to goods imported outside the region. They pool together all customs and excise duties collected across the region and share them among the members as per set revenue-sharing formula.
In solidarity with the people of Eswatini, COSATU believes this Summit is an opportune time to review the formula and take into account good governance and the human rights record of its members states when determining the split of shared revenue.
The review is long overdue. How does South Africa’s government justify to its citizens the continued subsidisation of the Swati Royal family’s exorbitant lifestyle while its own citizens are ravaged by poverty and benefit nothing from this arrangement.
We cannot in good conscience continue to prop up an undemocratic regime that routinely attacks, imprisons and even murders democracy, human rights and trade union activists through SACU revenues.
Eswatini must embrace democracy and human rights or be cut off. It is long overdue that the South African and indeed other governments in the region bring this rogue regime to heel and force it to engage its citizens in good faith on a peaceful transition to democracy.
This is the 21st century not the 1800s. We should no longer turn a blind eye to the human rights abuses taking place across our borders.
Issued by COSATU
Zanele Sabela
Cosatu Spokesperson
079 287 5788/077 600 6639
zaneles@cosatu.org.za