DRC benchmarks on Botswana
President Mokgweetsi Masisi has hailed discussions he held with his Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) counterpart, Felix Tshisekedi, as pleasant and mutually reinforcing. The two Presidents held a tete-a-tete Tuesday this week before holding official talks at the Office of the President (OP).
Briefing media at a press conference held at the OP gardens, Masisi was elated their talks were widespread and covered political collaboration and cooperation. He hailed Tshisekedi for previously leading the African Union (AU) indicating that it seems the DRC President was meant to lead SADC, which he is the new chairperson.
“We submit to your leadership and pledge our loyalty. As Botswana, we are going to make you a successful chairperson of SADC because we headquarters SADC. It’s in our best interest to ensure we succeed,” Masisi told the visiting President. He noted that SADC succeeds when member states get along and Botswana and the DRC get along.
The two Presidents had sealed their decisions by instructing their ministers of foreign affairs to develop a framework on bilateral cooperation focusing on key critical areas that are a priority to both the DRC and Botswana.
“It’s such intensity of collaboration that we will cement our relationship and make SADC succeed, which is on regional integration. The areas and sectors that we are keen to cooperate include; agriculture space, governance, education, natural resources management and includes our mineral wealth, wildlife (flora and fauna),” Masisi said. Botswana, according to Masisi, is keen to ensure that it goes deep in to collaboration in other sectors of the economy for the advancement of the people. Botswana has also agreed to underlay the agreement it has with the commitment to good governance, peace and stability.
“We have committed each other to ensuring that we first think of each other when we execute our relationship by not only visiting one another, encouraging our people to visit each other and visit each other’s countries,” stressed the host President.
Masisi emphasised a call for Batswana and the Congolese to co-invest in both countries. He said Tshisekedi was specific on his call for Batswana farmers to go to the DRC and rear livestock.
“We didn’t want to keep secret of the fact that Botswana beef is the best in the world,” said the elated President and added: “We are more than happy to share with the DRC, the whole value chain to do with our livestock sector from the research and development to the products themselves, to the animals before they become the product and other derivatives that also enhance the quality.”
He noted that there are other resources including humans, elephants, cattle, sheep and goats, diamonds amongst others. All these, he said, thrive in value where there is good governance, peace and stability.
The President told his DRC counterpart that for the story of Botswana and what it has been able to do with the little it has, he was more than happy to share. Tshisekedi opened his address by telling a sad story of his suffering people back home who were washed away by the floods and landslides that displaced and killed many due to the climate change. He also told the press briefing about the M23 rebels that continue to wreak havoc in the eastern region leaving masses displaced as a result.
He described the first ever State visit to Botswana as a sign of good ties between the two countries as there was a lot for his country to learn from Botswana and vice versa. He said from the official talks held between the two countries, it has brought forward strategic partnership between the two countries and have exchanged in the perspective of deepening bilateral relations in the areas of development and focus on major sectors of common interest to both countries. Areas targeted include agriculture, education, mines, investment, defence, security and also commerce.
“When it comes to the mining sector, the DRC would like to gain experience from Botswana for the transformation of its minerals. Mines generally in the DRC don’t work very well because the DRC mines cause us more problems than solutions and when we talk mining in the Congo, we talk about war, violence and poverty whilst it should have been the contrary,” Tshisekedi said.
He highlighted that he committed himself to ensure that the DRC stops from being a country of extraction alone with the resources emptied by miners and then simply holes dug and left just like that without rehabilitation.
“It is on that ground that we would like to see such resources transformed to add value. Employment creation is my priority and that is the reason why I came here to benchmark from the case of Botswana,” he noted and added: “The diamond industry in Botswana is the source of employment creation.”
Tshesekedi’s itinerary will see him visiting the world’s diamond producer, the Jwaneng Mine, the Okavango Diamond Company, a rough diamond marketing company and diamond manufacturer, HB Botswana to appreciate diamond mining and its value chain.