07 Jul 2025

The main streets of the Malawi capital, Lilongwe, over the weekend were decorated with Botswana colours and strewn with billboard imagery of President Advocate Duma Boko as he got welcomed and was conferred with the Freedom of the City honour.

Upon commencing a three-day state visit at the invitation of host President Dr Lazarus Chakwera on Saturday, President Boko was handed the symbolic keys to the city by Lilongwe mayor, Councillor Esther Sagawa. Accompanied by the Malawi’s Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture, Mr Richard Banda, the chief executive officer of the Lilongwe City Council Dr MacLeod Kadammaja and councillors at the Civic Centre Chamber, the mayor handed the keys to President Boko and said it affirmed the bond between Botswana and Malawi.

The Freedom of the City is the highest award a municipality can bestow upon an individual of distinction or exceptional service, such as in June 1990 when South African liberation icon and later president, Dr Nelson Mandela was presented with a similar award and symbolic keys to the city by the then mayor of New York City, United States of America, Mr David Dinkins.

In a brief acceptance speech, President Boko said he had been humbled by the honour, which he classified as an act of kindness to further cement the ties between Botswana and Malawi. President Boko said even in his previous, less official visits to Malawi, not accompanied by the pomp and circumstance grandeur of being welcomed as a head of state, he still had felt the friendly demeanour of Lilongwe.

“Not only does Malawi brand itself as The Warm Heart of Africa, the warmth and generosity is something you practically feel from the Malawian people. Even those people who have little materially are generous and kind and I am grateful for such an experience and honour that typifies the Malawian spirit,” President Boko said.

In conferring the award, Councillor Sagawa explained that after its early incarnation in the early 1900s as a livestock enclosure and trading post, Lilongwe was recognised as a town by the Nyasaland colonial administration in 1947, becoming the capital of independent Malawi three decades later. She said they were pleased to recognise President Boko as an outstanding leader with democratic and human rights credentials.

Earlier during the bilateral discussions between Botswana and Malawi at the Kamuzu Palace state house, President Dr Chakwera called for greater cultural exchange and people to people interaction between citizens of Botswana and Malawi.

Meanwhile, the two countries signed bilateral agreements on trade and agriculture, which will lay the foundation for the two states commencing to explore practical collaboration on the sectors. ENDS