ABSTRACT
The end of the Cold War and the associated bi-polar superpower rivalries, independence for Namibia, the Mozambican peace agreement and the end of apartheid in South Africa were the fundamental political landmarks of the early 1990s in Southern Africa. These, it was keenly anticipated, would also serve as beacons for an emergent post-Cold War regional order of peace and collaboration in the name of 'development', spearheaded by regional actors rather than being driven by external agendas. To this end, the region's leading inter-governmental grouping, the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), re-launched itself in 1992 as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) with a more ambitious institutional agenda. This was designed to build on the foundations already laid but, crucially, observers also anticipated the emergence of a free South Africa that would soon become a member, thereby transforming the political economy of trans-boundary relations and activities. The rival Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern Africa (PTA) followed suit in 1994, becoming the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), while negotiations between South Africa and the other members of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) concerning the re-organization of that body have been under way since 1991, so far inconclusively.
