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PIGG’S PEAK – Eswatini’s Permanent Mission to Switzerland was not invited to a democracy conference with Botswana President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi who first convened on arrival in the European country.
Ambassador to Switzerland Vuyile Dlamini confirmed that they were not invited to be part of that meeting as the Eswatini delegation.
On arrival at the capital Bern, President Masisi first opened up a panel discussion in which professors and a Swiss ambassador exchanged views on ‘Promoting Democracy for Citizen-Centred Participation in the Digital Age’.
“We were not part of the first meeting with President Masisi. We were not invited to that meeting as Eswatini. It is very important to understand that we only attend meetings when there has been an invitation; you cannot just attend a meeting without an invite. At the meeting which the Botswana president had in Burnley we had no invitation whatsoever. Even my colleague here, who is the ambassador from Botswana, communicated nothing to me in relation to that meeting with the president in Burnley,” said the ambassador. He added that they were merely discussing issues of Botswana which the president had come for as they had bilateral relations with Switzerland.
“They were dealing with bilateral relations issues, including the lecture which he then presented at the University of Fribourg, which we would have attended if invited,” he said.
The President of Botswana, when visiting the Institute of Federalism, at the University of Fribourg, on Monday, he was welcomed in the Aula Magna, at the Miséricorde Campus of the University. For this occasion, the IFF has organised a conference open to the public in which participants had the chance to ask questions to President Masisi himself.