The 1969 Southern African Customs Union Agreement

In: The journal of modern African studies: a quarterly survey of politics, economics & related topics in contemporary Africa, Band 9, Heft 2, S. 263-281

Abstract

On 11 December 1969 representatives of the Governments of Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, and Swaziland signed a Customs Union Agreement, replacing that of 1910.1 Preliminary negotiations had been protracted. Bipartite discussions had begun some six years before, between South Africa and Britain, as the colonial power responsible for Bechuanaland, Basutoland, and Swaziland; but South Africa suspended the talks early in 1965, pending a reappraisal of her relationship with the three territories concerned, made necessary by their rapid constitutional advance, which led to complete independence. Negotiations were not resumed until mid-1968; several quadripartite meetings took place in Pretoria during 1968–9, including one at ministerial level. Eventually the detailed draft of the treaty was agreed.