President Thabo Mbeki told lawmakers in Namibia on Tuesday that the two neighbours’ destinies were inextricably linked as he oversaw a new push to boost cross-border trade.
After talks with host President Hifikepunye Pohamba, focused on development of Namibia’s offshore Kudu gas field project and electricity exports from South Africa, Mbeki was accorded the honour of addressing Parliament in Windhoek.
”The reality is that both our histories and our destinies are inextricably tied together. In a literal sense, we shall sink or swim together,” Mbeki said.
”My delegation and I want to thank our brothers and sisters in this country with whom we engaged in a common titanic struggle to defeat the apartheid crime against humanity, which represented itself here in Namibia also as a colonial monster.”
The former South West Africa was ruled by South Africa for seven decades before Namibia gained its independence from the apartheid regime in Pretoria in March 1990.
Namibia’s independence, which came four years before the downfall of apartheid, was an ”important milestone that ensured that the freedom of the people of South Africa could not be postponed for much longer,” Mbeki added.
The fact that both countries suffered the same fate in the past and experienced the same liberation from oppression had served to ”cement ties that bind us to a common destiny”, he added.
Mbeki and Pohamba had earlier witnessed the signing of three agreements, one on investment promotion and reciprocal investment protection, cooperation in the fields of home affairs and immigration, and on diplomatic consultations.
He also handed over records of birth, death and marriage records of Namibian nationals, kept by the South African government up to now, to Pohamba.
The two presidents are due on Wednesday to co-chair an international investor conference in Windhoek, to be attended by 500 participants. – Sapa-AFP