08 Aug 2019

The South African High Commissioner to Botswana, Ms Rosemary Mashaba has hailed Botswana for having played a role in the attainment of   South Africa’s freedom. Speaking during a Global Expo workshop on Botswana-South Africa Forum in Gaborone on August 7, Ms Mashaba said Botswana stood by South Africa through the anti-apartheid era and today, interaction between the two countries happens on a national and local level because of that. She pointed out that 38 bilateral agreements had been signed between the two countries, covering a range of issues from economic cooperation, to the development of the 1 969km-border that they share, which is incidentally, Botswana’s largest international border”.

Ms Mashaba said relations between the two countries were regulated by the Bi-national Commission, which allows them to exchange ideas and discuss solutions to various issues including the ones related to trade and investment.

She highlighted that Botswana purchases more goods from South Africa than from Mozambique, Namibia or Zimbabwe, citing that during March 2017, South Africa exported P1.89 billion worth of goods into Botswana and that for the same period, P1.56 billion was imported from the region and only P324.4 million was imported from the European Union, which she said makes South Africa, Botswana’s strongest trading partner.

Meanwhile, the high commissioner said South Africa had identified a number of opportunities that would be beneficial to both countries, such as the development of road infrastructure in Botswana and the export of chicken and leather from Botswana to South Africa.

She noted that investment opportunities in Botswana included large water, electricity, transportation and telecommunications infrastructure, adding that there was potential for South Africa companies to get involved in mining, mineral processing, machinery, energy, agriculture, cattle farming, leather, tourism and financial services sectors.

She said Botswana had recently been promoting agricultural sector expansion, despite the rare commodity of arable land and the country had begun recruiting South African farmers to develop small to medium agricultural farm holdings, in partnership with local farmers.

Ms Mashaba revealed that Botswana had indicated its intention  to intensify efforts to accelerate economic diversification and to create employment opportunities for Batswana, especially the youth.

She urged Botswana to ensure that adequate skills were locally available to ensure that economic growth and diversification were achieved, which would create an opportunity for South African professionals and academics to assist with enhancement of skills in Botswana

Ms Mashaba said the economic activities from Botswana into South Africa were also strong, adding that Botswana continued to export diamonds, machinery, soda ash and meat products to South Africa.

She further said Botswana has over 210 billion tonnes of coal reserves from which it intended to produce electricity for export, revealing that there was a plan for Botswana to begin exporting its coal to SA.

Meanwhile, she thanked the Botswana Investment Trade Centre (BITC) for its interest in pursuing economic relations and growing the partnership between South Africa and Botswana, which she said was the foundation for future economic interactions.

She said South Africa had committed to building a country driven by enterprise and innovation, to develop an economy that is diverse, resilient, prosperous and to create companies that achieve sustained returns, not only for their shareholders, but also for the workers that drive them as well as the communities that support them.

Ms Mashaba said the South African government had redoubled its efforts in using economic diplomacy to address domestic challenges and had set itself a goal of attracting US$100 billion (about P1.1 trillion)  in investments over the next five years.

She further stated that South Africa provided good access to various markets to the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans as well as on land through the rest of Africa. ENDS