03 Feb 2026

President Advocate Duma Boko expressed this when welcoming the Angola Ambassador Designate to Botswana, Mr Sandro Retano Agostinho de Olivera, on Friday.
In the past, the country donated 500 elephants to Mozambique, a move that also sparked interest from the Angola President, Mr Joao Lourenço.
However, President Boko pointed out that the challenge with Mozambique’s donation has been the hefty cost of transporting elephants to that nation, thus, he noted that Botswana and Angola could deliberate on facilitating the donation.
Also, he said the two countries must devise anti-poaching strategies to allow for a migration corridor to ensure the safe and secure migration of elephants.
President Boko noted that elephants were, by nature, sensitive animals which would not go to an area where they were not safe due to poaching, adding that the two countries could tap into technology to ensure safety along the corridor.
Facilitating easy migration would allow vegetation to recuperate on the other side, as well as help in the transfer of new species of plants and improve vegetation.
Another area where the two countries should collaborate on, is diamond sales and marketing.
President Boko said with Botswana in the process of acquiring De Beers, the two diamond-producing nations could collaborate to influence pricing and the diamond market.
Also, President Boko said the narrative that natural diamonds were losing ground to synthetic diamonds was far-fetched, noting that fake diamonds could not outdo the original. He said behind the natural diamonds were stories of the people whose livelihoods depended on diamonds, and this narrative has been missing from the diamond marketing strategy.
For a long time, Botswana’s diamonds were marketed as De Beers diamonds, thus negating the story of the people where they were mined and the fact that these precious gems continued to change lives.
“Natural diamonds speak to the lives and livelihoods of people where they are produced,” he said, adding that the diamond story should be fused into the marketing strategy.
He said there was need for Botswana and Angola to collaborate as diamond-producing countries, to partner and establish facilities such as diamond museums and other diamond investments.
Also, Mr Boko highlighted the communication hurdles between Gaborone and Luanda, saying that such worked against the ease of doing business.
For instance, a flight that can take an hour between the two leads to traveling through other countries, which consumes time and was expensive.
“To travel to Luanda, you have to go through Addis,” he said, adding  that the setup also failed to facilitate tourism between the two countries.
President Advocate Boko also received the Botswana Ambassador Designate to Namibia, Mr Phillip Khwae, whom he described as an experienced politician with in-depth knowledge of challenges besieging the country, noting that they predominantly emanate from unattended structural issues.
“These issues have caught up with the country,” President Boko said, adding that collaborating with strategic partners and neighbours such as Namibia was therefore necessary.
More over, he said both countries have partners in projects such as the Trans-Kalahari Railway line, saying there was a need to speed up its construction.
Also, he said the two could explore airline collaborations, saying Namibia’s airline had collapsed while Air Botswana faced challenges, thus the two nations could partner to resuscitate the sector.
Another potential partnership was in the diamond industry space through De Beers, adding that Botswana’s desire to acquire De Beers would have a direct impact on Namibia, as they are also a diamond-producing country.
Additionally, he stated that at the border into Namibia, Batswana are charged a substantial fee, while Namibian citizens pay a nominal fee upon entering the country.
As such, he said there might also beneed to increase the fees, although not substantially, to broaden revenue streams and address road conditions.
Additionally, President Boko mentioned that some Batswana of Namibian origin had relocated to Namibia, noting that these individuals were farmers and that there could be outstanding issues that Mr Khwae would need to address.
For his part, Mr Khwae expressed gratitude for being allowed to serve the country as an ambassador, noting that he was looking forward to strengthening ties between the two sister countries. ENDS