Regionalism through Institutions: SACU, SADC and COMESA

At present, there exists a multiplicity of institutional arrangements for facilitating cooperation of various types and involving different degrees of intensity at the sector, institutional and project levels. Principal among these are: the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). If the vision of a subcontinental community is truly to be achieved, then it is essential to focus our attention on the available options for moving these crucial institutions from their current positions towards less fragmented arrangements for promoting subregional integration. In what follows, this chapter reviews the positions of these historical institutions and speculates on their transformative potentials.