The President says he is happy with the democratic processes and transfer of power witnessed in Botswana.
“As SADC, we are very happy the process went on well. We
had three Heads of State in attendance. This is Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Zambia,
but it went very smoothly.
“President Boko was very happy that I had come after he
extended his invitation, and I then congratulated him, and we spoke,” President
Mnangagwa said on arrival in Harare from Gaborone yesterday afternoon.
Following last week’s election, President Mnangagwa
expressed his readiness to work with the new Botswana Government and it’s
President.
“On behalf of the Government and People of the Republic of
Zimbabwe, and on my own behalf, I wish to extend to you my most sincere
congratulations on your election as the President-Elect of the Republic of
Botswana,” President Mnangagwa said.
He expressed his eagerness to continue implementing
bilateral co-operation agreements with the new leadership in Botswana.
“As you assume your new role, I am confident that the
excellent relations between our two countries will continue to grow from
strength-to-strength in the years ahead, for the mutual benefit of our two
peoples.
“I also affirm my commitment to working very closely with you at regional, continental, and multilateral fora, in pursuit of a just global political and economic order”.
President Boko told the BBC Africa Daily podcast before he
was sworn in that he wanted to formalise the permits and other relevant
paperwork for Zimbabweans in Botswana, citing their unique skills, especially in the
construction sector.
“So what we need to do is to formalise, have a proper
arrangement that recognises that people from Zimbabwe are already here,” he
said.
President Boko acknowledged Zimbabweans’ unique skills,
saying Botswana could benefit a lot from them.
“In any and every construction site in Botswana, the
majority of people with those skills are from Zimbabwe, so we need to do a twin
programme of allowing them to come in and we utilise the skills that they have
and in the process of utilising these skills, we also engage in some sort of
skills transfer,” he said.
“We can’t stop people with skills from coming in when we
don’t have the skills ourselves – we need to develop these skills and it takes
time, so in the interregnum we need to have them come in properly, come in
legally and be rewarded appropriately for the skills that they bring.” Herald
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