uncertain separation
What Brexit means for SA
The date of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU is drawing ever nearer. How it will affect SA is yet to be seen, but the UK says that, regardless, it is pushing for closer economic ties with Africa
British Prime Minister Theresa May parroted the phrase "Brexit means Brexit" with shrill insistence in the weeks following the UK’s shock decision in 2016 to leave the EU. But with the country’s departure on March 29 looming, what that actually means still remains frighteningly unclear. Months of painstaking negotiations between the EU and the UK have resulted in a withdrawal agreement that very few people want. In parliament it was rejected by a record 230 votes, including those of 118 rebel MPs from May’s ruling Conservative Party. Among supporters of both the Conservative and the opposition Labour party there is a wide spectrum of views about what Brexit should entail. There are, on the one hand, the "remainers" who, in spite of the June 2016 referendum result, want to stay in the EU. Among the people who want the UK to leave the bloc, those favouring a "soft Brexit" want to maintain close links — including staying a part of the EU’s customs union and single market, which allows ...
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