CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) must urgently transition from being viewed primarily as a mechanism for collecting and distributing customs revenue into a fully-fledged developmental economic community, His Majesty King Mswati III has urged.
Reflecting on the mid-term review of the SACU Strategic Plan, His Majesty welcomed the progress achieved across its core pillars but directly acknowledged that implementation has fallen short of the pace originally envisioned.
While Eswatini supports the formal extension of the Strategic Plan to the 2028/2029 financial year, the King insisted that timelines must not be pushed back without resolving the underlying institutional bottlenecks.
He called for the extension to be paired with a strictly costed, prioritised, and time-bound implementation framework, backed by robust monitoring mechanisms.
“Our citizens will ultimately measure the success of SACU not by the number of strategies we adopt, but by the industries established, investments mobilised, markets opened, borders modernised, and jobs created,” the King stated.
As part of this developmental shift, the King highlighted the progress under the trade facilitation and logistics programme, notably the expansion of the regional Authorised Economic Operator programme and successful joint customs enforcement operations against illicit trade.
To directly support these regional efforts, His Majesty announced that Eswatini remains fully committed to upgrading its own logistics corridors. He pointed to the progressive transformation of the critical Ngwenya–Oshoek border post into a modern One-Stop Border Post (OSBP).
As a principal gateway linking Eswatini to the wider SACU market, its modernization is expected to drastically lower the costs of trade, cut logistical delays, and streamline the cross-border movement of goods and people.
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