23 Nov 2017

President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama will leave for Zimbabwe today (November 24) to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Zimbabwe’s President in waiting, Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The former Zimbabwe Vice President who rose to power amid a bitter power struggle inside his ruling party, ZANU PF that led to a soft military coup that forced former President, Mr Robert Mugabe to resign on Tuesday, is expected to be sworn-in today as Head of State and Government.

Speaking in an interview, President Khama highlighted that one the most important expectation from Mr Mnangagwa’s term as Zimbabwe’s Head of State would be to give confidence for investors to start businesses in Zimbabwe and bring about hope to the people of that country by creating jobs.

He said it was important that Mr Mnangagwa created a platform to embrace democracy and all the principles that surrounded the rule of law in order to position Zimbabwe towards a sustainable economic recovery.

Going forward, President Khama said it was crucial for the in-coming President to provide hope to Zimbabweans and inventors alike that the previous crack down would not repeat itself and people could operate freely in their society without having to look over their shoulder all the time and not worried about intimidation.

The President stated that it was heartbreaking that millions of Zimbabweans had to flee their country in search of better living conditions and opportunities in other countries in order to keep themselves and their families afloat.

"People should not expect a complete economic and democratic turnaround overnight in Zimbabwe, hence it is important for Mr Mnangagwa to clearly make his transformations intentions clear from the word go, so  as to restore some faith on the Zimbabweans," he said.

Further, President Khama said he remained optimistic that Mr Mnangagwa would play a key role in the transformation of Zimbabwe, based on how he related to his fellow citizenry and other regional Heads of State.

He stated that during his numerous casual meetings with Mr Mnangagwa, the latter came across as somebody who had the interests of the people at heart, a recipe for human empowerment and livelihoods transformation.

The President further highlighted that Botswana stood ready to give Zimbabwe all the support in her new journey of transformation and would however wait for Zimbabwe to indicate which fields they would require assistance on. ENDS