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Photo: GCIS
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday made his first visit to Mozambique since becoming head of state on 15 February, and held discussions with his Mozambican counterpart, Filipe Nyusi, centring on economic cooperation.
Speaking to reporters after the talks, Nyusi stressed that the South African and Mozambican economies are “complementary”, and hoped that a new memorandum of understanding on economic cooperation would soon be approved.
Although both leaders made it clear that all the details of the relationship would be discussed in depth at a forthcoming meeting in South Africa of the Binational Commission between the two countries, Nyusi did make clear Mozambique’s interest in increasing South Africa’s use of the southern Mozambican rail system.
He was thus referring to the concerns that far too much of the South African cargo handled by the port of Maputo reaches the port by road, rather than by rail. This is regarded as one of the factors responsible for congestion on the Maputo-South Africa motorway.
Ramaphosa stressed the historic, political and cultural ties between Mozambique and South Africa, and declared “our two peoples are just one people, although separated by a border”.
He added that he wished the SADC (Southern African Development Community) to remain “a region of peace and prosperity”.
South African Foreign Minister Lindiwe Sisulu told the press that, as from April, the Lebombo/Ressano Garcia border post, the busiest border post between South Africa and Mozambique, will be open 24 hours a day. Up until now 24 hour opening has been restricted to the peak tourist periods (such as the Christmas and New Year holidays), but there have been increasing calls from business to keep the border open all year round.
Although billed as a press conference, there was no time left for the two presidents to take questions from the reporters, before Ramaphosa returned to Maputo International Airport to fly on to Zimbabwe.
The visit was part of Ramaphosa’s tour of the region. He had earlier visited Angola and Botswana.
A statement issued by Ramaphosa’s office said that the visit “forms part of a long-standing tradition in the SADC region, whereby newly elected Heads of State pay courtesy calls to the neighbouring countries”.
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