Africa-Press – Botswana. The saying that a man writes his obituary while alive, is affirmed by the demise of the towering giant of a man in stature, the late Namibia President Dr Hage Geingob, whose works are still remembered by many.
He might be gone, but his legacy lives on, especially his impressive track record on the SADC member states regional integration and trade facilitation efforts through his astute leadership.
Trans Kalahari Corridor CEO, Mr Leslie Mpofu made the assertion in an interview on Wednesday.
“Dr Geingob was committed to transforming Namibia into a logistic hub where Walvis Bay Corridor Group was given the mandate to drive the strategy.He nurtured relations with neighbouring countries to achieve that,” he said.
He affirmed that Dr Geingob exuded commitment towards trade facilitation between SADC member states through ensuring that Trans Kalahari and Mamuno borders became one stop border posts.
“Through his astute leadership, a legal instrument on the development of one-stop border posts was enacted in Namibia in 2017 and on September 9, 2022 an agreement on the development of Trans Kalahari Border and Mamuno was signed at the Botswana and Namibia Bi National Commission. The one-stop border post is expected to be launched in May,” he said.
Furthermore, Mr Mpofu noted that President Geingob contributed substantively towards ease of movement of citizens of Botswana and Namibia using identity iards as travel documents.
“This has helped our people and truck drivers who cross the border frequently because their passports used to fill up quickly,” he said.
Most importantly, he said Namibia allocated pieces of land to Botswana, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of Congo at Walvis Bay, to develop Dry Ports, thereby linking them to the sea.
“These countries are now considered land–linked. He fondly liked to say such countries were now ‘Sea-linked’,” he said.
When Dr Geingob launched the high capacity container terminal at Walvis Bay in 2019 he said the landlocked Sub Saharan countries connected to Namibia shall now become abundantly Sea-linked.
The container terminal was created after harvesting 40 hectares of land from the sea to accommodate bigger sea vessels coming from across the Atlantic Ocean at Walvis Bay.
He had said, “The container terminal will handle high capacity cargo. It is a strategic gate way to enhance markets of Southern Africa, West Africa as well as Latin America. It shall turn Walvis Bay into Africa’s express hub to international markets.”
Dr Geingob at the time said Botswana, Zambia, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe were among the ‘sea-linked’ countries whose cargo would go through the port of Walvis Bay.
Thus, he said, the terminal shall support the SADC regional integration agenda.
“Through these developments, countries in the region can now become Sea-linked. The new container terminal gives us the additional capacity to serve both local and regional requirements.”
The TKC CEO said the late Dr Geingob also contributed significantly towards harmonisation of the legislation on transportation of dangerous goods amongst Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, involved in the development of the Trans Kalahari Corridor.
He also highlighted that the late Namibia President showed strong will power towards the development of the Trans Kalahari Rail, adding that during his tenure the project management unit office was set up in Windhoek to kick start the project.
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