NAMIBIA this week assumed chairmanship of the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu)’s heads of state and government, the Sacu council of ministers and the Sacu commission.
Namibia took the chairmanship from Lesotho which is effective from 2019 to 2020.
This means president Hage Geingob is now the chairperson of the Sacu summit, finance minister Calle Schlettwein serves as the chairperson of the Sacu council of ministers and finance executive director Ericah Shafudah will serve as the Sacu commission chair.
Accepting the chairmanship on behalf of Namibia at a press briefing on Thursday, Schlettwein said the chairmanship of the Sacu institutions comes with the obligations to drive the Sacu Work Programme to the achievement of the customs’ objectives.
“Namibia looks forward to working closely with the Sacu membership in furtherance of these objectives,” Schlettwein said. He further said he will work closely with the outgoing chair on specific aspects of the work programme and continue to build on the foundation laid by Lesotho to move the Sacu agenda forward.
Outgoing Sacu chair (Lesotho)’s finance minister Moeketsi Majoro presented a report with details on the status of implementation of the Sacu Work Programme for Namibia’s consideration, information and further action.
He said: “As you will appreciate from the report, the main focus of the council during Lesotho’s term has been the implementation of the work programme (…),” Majoro noted. Adding that there is need to fast track the process of implementation and details on activities done and to be done are contained in the report.
-charmaine@namibian.com.na
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