01 Jun 2021

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi returned home Monday after a two-day working visit to fellow Southern African Development Community (SADC) member state, Angola. 

The purpose of the trip was to engage in talks on bilateral and regional issues with his Angolan counterpart, Mr João Lourenço.

Dr Masisi also used the occasion to present the candidature of ambassador-at-large Mr Elias Magosi for the SADC executive secretary position which will be decided at the 41st heads of state and government summit slated for August in Malawi.

The second largest Portuguese speaking state in the world after Brazil, both in population size and surface area, Angola established diplomatic ties with Botswana in 1975 having just gained independence from Portugal. 

Alongside Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique, the two countries participated in agitating for the liberation of the rest of southern Africa as part of the Frontline States.

Joined by Zimbabwe, which had just emerged from British rule, Botswana and Angola were among the states that founded the Southern African Development Coordinating Conference (SADCC) in 1980.

They both partook in the organisation’s transformation into a development community a decade later through the 1992 SADC Treaty to accommodate regional dynamics brought about by the liberation of more southern African countries.

Bilateral relations between the two states, were further cemented when Botswana and Angola signed a General Cooperation Agreement in 2006 and later when Angola officially opened an embassy in Gaborone. 

Botswana and Angola are part of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, an expansive ecosystem zone that also includes Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The conservation area incorporates Botswana’s Okavango Delta, which derives water from the Okavango River that flows from the Angolan highlands across Namibia’s Zambezi Region (formerly Caprivi Strip) into Botswana.

Following the end of a post-independence civil war in 2002, resource-rich Angola has enjoyed relative stability and sustained economic growth driven by the exploitation of petroleum and mineral reserves. 

President Masisi’s delegation included Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation Dr Lemogang Kwape and senior government officials.ends