The president sees an important role for the BRICS formation to contribute to these efforts.

Mabuza revealed one of the benefits of the trade agreement at the National Assembly in Parliament.

Ramaphosa noted that this free trade area is now the largest on the globe, bringing together 1.2 billion people with a combined GDP of $3 trillion.

African leaders have finally launched a long-awaited free-trade agreement seven years after the concept was first agreed, but political integration as envisaged by the continent’s founding fathers decades ago still seems a pipe dream.