The Executive Secretary of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), Dumisani Masilela, underlined the commitment of all member states to utilise the union as a platform for driving development and economic growth.

Dumisani noted this during an interview with NBC News at SACU's 9th Heads of State Summit scheduled to take place tomorrow in Cape Town, South Africa.

"There is a bigger agenda that heads of state commissioned, which is the re-imagination of the union. What is encouraging is that there is a lot of commitment to sustaining the union because I do believe every member state sees value in it. So I think that is the positive that we can take from this. There's commitment amongst all the member states to use it as a development platform as well. So the strategy covers that pillar: industrialisation, investment and export promotion. Pillar two also then focuses on issues of trade facilitation and logistics."

Masilela underscored the importance of SACU Heads of State or Government convening in one place to deliberate on and agree to the organisation's developmental agenda.

The last meeting was held in Eswatini in 2023.

"And they have been meeting since 2013. Of course, because of their difficult agendas and schedules, they've not been able to meet every year. So we are very, very excited that this year they've been able to commit some time to this process. The information that we have, and I hope nothing changes, is that all our Heads of State have confirmed attendance in person, and we are looking forward to a very exciting engagement of the Heads of State."