Addressing a meeting on Friday with representatives of Mozambican financial institutions, the executive secretary of SADC, Tomaz Salomao, made it clear that, sooner or later, those countries that are members of both SADC and COMESA must choose between them. Essentially this is because, under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, no country can belong to more than one customs union - and both SADC and COMESA intend to create customs union. A further problem is that there already exists one customs union within SADC, the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), between South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland.
Salomao recalled that, shortly after taking up his post, he had met with Botswanan President Festus Mogae who told him the main reason that regional integration in southern Africa was not proceeding as quickly as desired was the problem of "dual affiliation" - and particularly the fact that southern African politicians were reluctant to talk openly about the implications of belonging to two regional communities.
