Mnangagwa visits Namibia

Published: 15 January 2018

President Emmerson Mnangagwa will today visit Namibia on the third leg of his regional tour to brief his counterparts on the political situation in the country and the forthcoming harmonised elections.

He will meet Namibian counterpart, President Hage Geingob.

President Mnangagwa's first stop over was Pretoria in South Africa where he met President Jacob Zuma and ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa, and on Friday he was in Luanda, Angola, on a similar mission.

In Angola, President Mnangagwa met his counterpart, President Joao Lourenco, who also chairs the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security.

In an interview yesterday, Presidential spokesperson Mr George Charamba confirmed today's visit.

He said the President would also use the visit to explain opportunities presented by the new dispensation ushered into power following the resignation of former President Mugabe on 21 November 2017.

"Firstly, this is a courtesy call and the second objective is to appraise leaders in the region on the very stable situation that is reigning in Zimbabwe and together with that the preparations that are underway towards the 2018 harmonised elections which must be free, fair and credible," said Mr Charamba.

"The third objective is to explain policies of the new era and what opportunities are there for joint venture projects, cross-border investment and skills sharing that can take place between our countries to promote value addition in Sadc as well as skills sharing. This is consistent with the resolution made by Sadc during an Extraordinary Summit held in Harare during the chairmanship of former President (Mugabe).

"Specifically, with reference to Namibia, we have a contingent of Zimbabwean engineering experts and veterinary experts who were seconded on request by the Namibian Government. Already that relationship has been developed and what we need to do now is to consolidate it. But all of it is predicated on an extraordinary gesture by the Namibians when we saw the sitting President (Hage Geingob) coming in the company of his two predecessors (Sam Nujoma and Hifikepunye Pohamba) to witness the inauguration of President Mnangagwa. It's a turn which more than deserves reciprocation because essentially what Namibia through that gesture did was to demonstrate the deep affinitive between our peoples and our leaderships.

"Really, that is something that left a very strong impression on the President as it underlined the unbreakable affinity that joins our peoples. The same gesture was echoed by the Zambian leadership which sent its own triumvirate as well - founding President (Kenneth Kaunda), the surviving predecessor President (Rupiah Banda) and the sitting President (Edgar Lungu)."

President Mnangagwa is expected to visit other Sadc countries soon.
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