Africa-Press – Botswana. Namibia president, Dr Nangolo Mbumba, will on Wednesday attend a memorial service in Gaborone held in honour of the late Namibia president, Dr Hage Geingob.
Namibia president’s special envoy, Ms Christine Hoebes, confirmed this when she met with President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi at Office of the President.
Ms Hoebes said Dr Mbumba and the people of Namibia were humbled by the decision taken by President Masisi to host a memorial service to honour their late president.
Delivering a special message from Namibia president, Ms Hoebes said Dr Geingob’s wife, Dr Monica Geingos, her family and the people of Namibia appreciated Botswana’s support during a trying time.
She said President Masisi was the first leader to visit and console the first family as well as Namibians.
“We did not take it for granted. If there is a time when friendship and brotherhood was to be tested, it has to be at the time of bereavement. You have passed such a test with flying colours.
We do not have enough words to express our appreciation. You put all your country’s resources at our disposal,” she said.
Ms Hoebes said under the stewardship of Dr Masisi and Dr Geingob, the relations between the two nations had improved tremendously.
“I want to assure you that what you have started will be continued. We shall maintain and continue building the relations,” said Ms Hoebes.
In his remarks, President Masisi said Botswana and Namibia had strong historical ties that made it imperative for the two countries to ease movement of their citizenry.
He said the two governments must work on doing away with boundaries between the two nations as a step towards attaining Africa’s transformative Agenda 2063.
“Myself and Dr Geingob had thought to achieve a lot together in our lifetime.
I am pained that he is gone. I am convinced that the coming president, after the Namibia elections, will submit to the philosophy and follow through on what he had started,” he added.
President Masisi said the late Namibia president was humble to his people and everyone around him.
“We shared notes on how to work for our people. All that we did was genuine and affinity towards our people. Thank you for your grace, humanity and service that you rendered to him during his reign as president. We built on written and oral principles of our people that we found in place. There were no boundaries on our interactions,” he said.
President Masisi said his relationship and friendship with Dr Geingob was genuine, adding ‘we used to go into each other’s private space interacting and exchanging important notes’.
And President Masisi said one of the issues that he regularly discussed with the late Dr Geingob was the archival material of the history of their peoples.
He said during the liberation struggle, some of the Herero and Nama people found refuge in Botswana where they were well received.
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