The plan calls for the abolition of tariffs and non-tariff barriers by 2008; a SADC-wide customs union by 2010; a common market, including free movement of labour and capital, by 2015; and a single currency and central bank by 2016, Mboweni is reported to have said.

Any of the 13 Southern African Development Community states that have not achieved the targets for inclusion will be left behind, he said in an interview with Business Times. Protocols already signed and others in the works would bind future governments of the SADC states and their central banks to follow through on the programme.

Once inside the integrated monetary union, there would be no way out for countries battling to keep within the agreed parameters. As in the European Union, disputes and non-compliance would be matters for a regional court with hefty fines for those who fail to adhere.

Members could continue to print their own notes and coins under a monetary union even if there was only one central bank, but it would be far better to have a single unit of currency for the region.

Whether that should be the rand, pula, dollar or something else would be decided later, he said.

10 March 2005