Zimbabwe and South Africa have strong diplomatic relations. Recent initiatives, including discussions on migration and investment opportunities, reflect a commitment to strengthening ties and addressing shared challenges for mutual benefit. The Sunday Mail’s Assistant Editor ROSELYNE SACHITI spoke to Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to South Africa DAVID HAMADZIRIPI, on the sidelines of Vice President Kembo Mohadi’s visit to the neighbouring country last week, on the state of diplomatic relations between Harare and Pretoria.
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Q: How would you describe the current state of diplomatic relations between Zimbabwe and South Africa? What recent developments have positively impacted these relations?
A: The relations between Zimbabwe and South Africa are very healthy, but there is room for improvement.
As we speak, I just received a message from an acting deputy director-general in the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture of South Africa.
He has been in Zimbabwe, leading a delegation that has been having discussions with our Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage on the programme South Africa is undertaking to exhume and repatriate the remains of some of their heroes and freedom struggle stalwarts who lived and died in Zimbabwe.
This is a very important programme for South Africa.
This month, those remains are going to be repatriated to South Africa.
There is going to be a ceremony to be presided over by the President (Cyril Ramaphosa) to mark the return of those remains.
As you are aware, during the SADC Summit, his Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa, of South Africa, was in Zimbabwe.
On the sidelines of the summit, our two ministers of foreign affairs — Honourable Ambassador Frederick Shava (Zimbabwe) and Honourable Ronald Lamola (South Africa) — met and had a very good discussion.
Both agreed that we would take steps and measures to ensure that next year, we will convene the Bi-National Commission, again in an effort not just to strengthen the relations, but to also identify new areas of cooperation.
Q: How are the two governments addressing cross-border issues, such as immigration and trade barriers?
A: Zimbabwe and South Africa being neighbours, cross-border issues are of particular importance in terms of how we manage them.
We anticipate having some discussions with our colleagues from South Africa, generally on the issue of migration.
Not just migration between Zimbabwe and South Africa, but also migration within the regional context because migration is historical, universal and has both positive and negative dimensions.
We intend to talk more and bring up the positive dimensions of migration so that it can be of benefit both to Zimbabwe and South Africa, and, of course, to our region in its entirety.
When it comes to some very specific issues, for instance, there has been the major issue of movement of unaccompanied minors.
This is an issue to which the Government of Zimbabwe has a very deep commitment in protecting the rights and welfare of children.
I am happy to say that Zimbabwe and South Africa have a well-established framework, which is a joint committee that meets every quarter and alternately between the two countries.
We just had a recent meeting of that committee here in South Africa.
Our consulate personnel in Johannesburg participate very actively in the meetings of this joint committee.
I must express quite some concern about these cases of unaccompanied minors and would want to appeal to parents and guardians to ensure that minors travel according to the regulations and conditions that have been set by both our countries, and this is to ensure that their travel is safe, orderly and secure.
Q: What are some of the dangers faced by unaccompanied minors?
A: When the minors travel unaccompanied, they can fall prey to human traffickers and child abusers.
You are aware that we also had cases where individuals have been accused of killing minors for their body parts, and again we are talking about the lives of these children.
In itself, just travelling with a group of foreigners or people you are not related to can be traumatic for these young children.
It is important that parents and guardians ensure that their minor children travel with people who they are comfortable with; people they know.
We have had cases where minors have been caught in Cape Town without documentation and without having the proper processes having been followed for them to be able to travel from Zimbabwe to South Africa.
You are looking at minors as young as five years old travelling unaccompanied.
As parents, we need to be responsible.
Q: How has the issuance of e-passports at the Zimbabwe Embassy progressed since the initiative commenced?
A: One of the things our Government has been doing is to ensure that communities and individuals can acquire travel documents with greater ease, and we have seen the decentralisation of offices of the Registrar-General.
People cannot have an excuse not to acquire these documents because the facilities are being brought much closer to them than before.
We have rolled out the e-passport processing centre at the consulate in Johannesburg.
I can inform you that we are generally pleased with the turnout of applicants for e-passports at the consulate. Evidently, the numbers could be higher. We are aware that some of our nationals are unhappy with the cost of the e-passport when they apply for it at the consulate. As we have indicated before, we have brought these concerns to the attention of the relevant authorities in Zimbabwe. We believe those matters will be given due consideration.
But that is not an excuse for our nationals not to ensure that they acquire the necessary documents that will enable them to stay in South Africa in a regular manner.
Q: What measures are being taken to attract South African investment into Zimbabwe? How can South Africa benefit from investing in Zimbabwe?
A: I appreciate the efforts of some of our nationals in promoting trade and investment between Zimbabwe and South Africa.
On the 12th of this month, I had the occasion to go and attend a trade and investment networking session that had been organised by the Zimbabwe-South Africa Business Chamber together with a Swiss company called Cotecna, signifying the partnerships that we are building with potential investors and with others who are already present in Zimbabwe.
Cotecna is already present in Zimbabwe and we want to invite other Zimbabweans and partners to come on board and work with us so that we can improve the trade and investment relations between Zimbabwe and South Africa.
This is going to benefit both our countries because it will ensure that we can create sustainable employment opportunities for our people, both in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
We are very pleased with the growing interest in investing in Zimbabwe from South Africa.
We are seeing this through the participation of South African companies and entities in various events held in Zimbabwe.
I want to mention, in particular, the participation of South African companies at the SADC Industrialisation Week.
South African companies also participated at the just-ended Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo.
Let me specifically mention that after that fair, a delegation from the KwaZulu Natal Trade and Investment Board visited some parts of Zimbabwe, including Hwange and Victoria Falls, as part of efforts to build investment and trade ties between that province and our country, and also to promote people-to-people connections and relations, taking advantage of direct flights that we now have between Harare and Durban.
Q: How do Zimbabwe and South Africa collaborate on security matters, particularly cross-border crime?
A: I wish to express real concern about reports that we receive of our nationals committing crimes in South Africa.
This creates a case of only a few individuals spoiling the name of the country and that of an entire community.
Unfortunately, and regrettably, it is those incidents that are again used by some within the South African community, who are xenophobic and anti-black foreigners in this country.
Our appeal is for Zimbabwean nationals to respect the laws of this country.
Take all the necessary measures to ensure that you are good citizens and, therefore, make the name of our country good. Also ensure that everyone from Zimbabwe will be able to stay here comfortably.
I must also emphasise that it is not just those who are doing bad things who are Zimbabweans; there are others.
We want to amplify the good things that some Zimbabweans are doing here.
There are many Zimbabweans who are making very positive contributions to the development of this country.
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