President Emmerson Mnangagwa has announced the passport free travel of Zimbabweans and the citizens of Botswana after reaching an agreement with the Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi to open up their borders for their citizens.
President Mnangagwa said the terms of the agreement will be be layed out by officials from both countries.
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“We have agreed, I can announce, that from now on we shall instruct our officials that there shall be no question of how to enter Zimbabwe, how to enter Botswana,” President Mnangagwa said to cheers during the fifth edition of the annual Kusi Ideas Festival in Gaborone.
He added “That should be cleared. The two of us have agreed, realising that we are Africans. We should be able to walk into Botswana, walk into Zambia and walk into Kenya. We agreed when we were sitting there that why should we restrict ourselves?”
“Somebody said in the past we were all living together, then the global north came and made boundaries, where the family’s kitchen became on the other side of the border, the bedroom on the other side of the border. So why should we continue to respect this? Let us open the borders among ourselves and move freely,” he added.
Botswana is one of Africa’s most stable countries with a GDP of US$ 17.61 billion in 2021, according to the World Bank.
Botswana already inked a similar arrangement with Namibia. Starting on February 24, 2023, Namibia and Botswana are accepting each other’s national identity cards for use in cross-border business and tourism travel for stays of up to 90 days.
Nationals of each country can present this card to enter the other country without a passport.
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