The agreement between President Mnangagwa and President
Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana, which is in line with regional and continental
aspirations of facilitating the free movement of people across borders, is
already being implemented in East Africa and Europe.
Within the broader East African Community, Uganda, Rwanda
and Kenya allow cross-border travel without passports. Botswana and Namibia in
April last year signed a similar agreement. They became the first countries in
the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) to abolish the use of
passports.
The Council of European Union (EU) governments recently
announced that from March 31, citizens of Romania and Bulgaria, which are both
EU member states, will no longer need a passport to travel by air or sea to
most other EU countries as well as Norway and Switzerland.
The decision extends the EU’s passport-free travel zone,
called the Schengen area, to 25 of the 27 EU countries. The Schengen area also
includes Norway and Switzerland, which are not part of the EU but does not
include EU members Ireland and Cyprus.
In a recent media briefing after the Fourth Session of the
Zimbabwe-Botswana Bi-National Commission Summit in Botswana, Presidents
Mnangagwa and Masisi reaffirmed their commitment to facilitating seamless
movement of people and goods across shared borders to boost economic activity
and strengthen regional integration.
It is envisaged that once passport requirements have been
removed, travellers would only require their respective national identity
documents to travel between the two countries.
This initiative aligns with broader efforts within the
Southern African Development Community and the African Union (AU) to promote
the free movement of people on the continent.
In an interview yesterday, Home Affairs and Cultural
Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe said everything is in place to do away with
the passport requirements with the Government now finalising the modalities.
“The President and his counterpart spoke and agreed on the
issue and we are forging ahead as planned. We are ready to implement what both
Heads of State agreed on, based on their good relationship,” he said.
“This will be an extraordinary thing and we are excited as
a country to be part of this phenomenon.”
President Mnangagwa recently said the history of both
countries showed that there was no need for the use of passports to move from
one country to another.
He said passport requirements were vestiges of a fraught
colonial past that was no longer fit for purpose in a fast-integrating region.
President Masisi said the scrapping of passport
requirements between the countries will forge great partnerships between the
two nations, while also attracting investment opportunities.
In a video shared on various social media platforms, the
Botswana leader told Parliamentarians in that country that people from both
countries, especially those living on the peripheries of the orders have
relatives on opposite sides of the border and needed to attend family
gatherings without having to undergo the tedious exercise of going through the
border.
“So, when such relatives want to visit their kin, given the
expensive fee of the passport, let alone the prices of food, why deny them
entry using an ID? Because they have to attend family events like weddings,
parties, and funerals, why do you say they should be denied entry at the border
posts using their IDs?” he asked.
President Masisi said he will be implementing the AU and
Sadc instruments, which he is a signatory to in respect to easier migration.
“I don’t condone your segregation attitude. When we did
that with Namibia you didn’t object, but now because it is Zimbabwe you are
looking down upon them, segregating them, adopting xenophobic tendencies,” he
said.
“You hate people, but I want to assure you, dare you even,
if we were to check your phone contacts many of you have illegal Zimbabweans’
phone numbers because you are using them for all kinds of duties. I want to
make sure there is legitimate entry.”
President Masisi added: “We will make sure to collect their
full data at the border posts to create databases. We are trying to make them
law-abiding. It’s good neighbourliness.”
Botswana and Namibia removed passport requirements for
their citizens early last year, making the two the first countries in Southern
Africa to implement such a system.
Zimbabwe and Botswana have enjoyed cordial bilateral ties
since pre-independence times, which have been amplified under the Second
Republic led by President Mnangagwa. Herald
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