New German envoy, Botte, surveys local terrain
Germany has a new Ambassador to Botswana, Margit Hellwig Botte. She replaces Ralf Breth who has since returned to Berlin following a successful stint during which he pushed German- Botswana bilateral relations especially in the areas of sports development, biodiversity protection and wildlife management through financing of the Kavango- Zambezi Trans Frontier Conservation Area ( KAZA) as well as continued funding of vocational education and training. In a meet and greet with
at the German embassy, the new envoy said she was still surveying her new environment before she could chart her vision.
She said when new to a country it’s not a good idea to come with fixed ideas on what to do but rather it’s best to go out, meet people, see people with “your own eyes and find out what’s going on in the country” to determine where to come in with “my ideas and expertise of what Germany has to offer”, and to see how to make this “great relationship” between Botswana and Germany even better.
She came to Botswana from India end of August and was quarantined during which time she figured what the embassy is doing before presenting her credentials to President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi. In India she worked for four ( 4) years in Bungalow, South India with German companies and start- ups.
Bungalow is something of a start- up capital and IT- hub in Southern India. “My job there was very different from what I will be doing here”. Before India, she was in Germany in the Foreign Ministry working on matters of the United Nations and before then she was Germany’s Ambassador to Kenya.
In fact, she says coming to Botswana was a “deliberate” decision as she wanted to return to Africa. She has also worked in Berlin, Germany in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which deals with issues of peace and security in Eastern Europe.
And prior to that assignment she worked for seven ( 7) years as a Foreign Policy Advisor in German Parliament.
“I have some experience with parliamentary affairs as well”. In between she spent some time as a Researcher at a Think Tank in Germany.
Her first posting at the German Foreign Ministry was to Guinea Conakry in West Africa made her tour and privately travelled to African countries like Senegal, Cameroun and Tanzania.
“I have been in and out of Africa”, she says of her African rendezvous.
After her stint in India she decided she’d like to come back to Africa to see if she can “blend all the experiences” she had acquired from her time in India with the developments taking place in Africa because she thinks that all the countries in the “Global South”, to which she includes Africa and Asia – “are really on the move”.
She says there are lots of developments here while Europe has attained a level of development in which people are now talking of “preserving what we have”, whereas in this part of the world there is a lot of “ambition”, lots of young people who all want to get somewhere.
“This is interesting and to be part of this development is very interesting indeed and whatever I can do to support people, institutions of, for example vocational training, which Germans are very good at, or maybe a start- up corporation and other developments – I am ready to do so if it makes sense”.
In the meantime she wants to connect the dots before she can clearly spell her vision.
The envoy however did share her thoughts on developments in Africa like the progress with the African Continental Free Area ( AcFTA). She reckons if Africa borrows a leaf from the European Union, which “started small” and concentrates first on increasing trade within its own region before going global, it will succeed.
She believes the precondition for a successful continental trade arrangement depends on increasing intra- regional trade, removing barriers between countries for people, trade and companies is the more exchange one creates.
Europe started with six countries and then went bigger because all the countries saw their own economic benefit from being part of the club. However, Africa’s set- up is different because “you have strong regional organisations, but I think you have potential to grow and become a part of global trade”, she said.
But she warns that it will need the determination and will of all the member states from the highest political level to get it done and to be really part of the club and to look less into respective national interests.
“The potential is there, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating”, she advised. As for COVID- 19, she reckons that it presents regional organisations an opportunity to really prove what integration entails since it appears destined to stay.