Like a fire fighter, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma will next year pay a state visit to Botswana, thanks to cantankerous African National Congress Youth League President Julius Malema’s ‘reckless’ call for regime change in Botswana.
But did it need to take Malema’s ‘undiplomatic’ outbursts to have Zuma consider Botswana worthy a neighbour to visit and cement as well as consolidate existing relations with? Was Botswana ever on Zuma’s itinerary until Malema unleashed his calls for regime in Botswana? Is Zuma only intending to visit us on the back of Malema’s outbursts so as to do some damage control? Did Zuma have any intentions to visit Botswana in his first term of presidency?
These are some of the many questions which we are inclined to ask because since he ascended to South Africa’s presidency in May 2009, there were no indications that Zuma intended to visit Botswana despite the cordial relations that the two countries have enjoyed over the years.
While he has visited a number of countries in the region, continent and the rest of the world, Botswana never appeared to be in Zuma’s priority list until Malema unleashed his calls for regime in Botswana in cooperation with the country’s opposition parties.
We may be wrong in our assumptions but given the role which Zuma has himself admitted that Botswana played as a passage route during South Africa’s liberation struggle against the erstwhile apartheid regime, one would have expected that our southern neighbor would have treated us as an important and worthy a neighbour to consider in its high priority foreign relations list.
For more than two and half years since his enthronement Zuma has been sidelining us until Malema unleashed his call for regime change in Botswana and thereby triggering the South African President to find a slot to visit us to cement as well as consolidate our existing relations.
That Botswana and South Africa have always enjoyed cordial relations is irrefutable. Not only are the two neighbours, they share a lot in common.
Botswana has always been one of the most important of South Africa’s trading partners. A lot of goods and services produced in South Africa are consumed in Botswana because Botswana’s industrial base is very small if not non-existent.
Botswana is also a gate way for South African goods into northern parts of the continent. Therefore Botswana’s importance to South Africa needs not be over emphasized despite that South Africa is determined to undermine us willy-nilly.
The role that we played in South Africa’s liberation is second to none. A lot of Batswana died through the invasions that were perpetrated by the apartheid regime during the liberation struggle.
There is absolutely no reason why South Africa should undermine us in its foreign relations policy.
Our culture is almost one and the same underpinned by the principle of botho which in their parlance is ubuntu.
It therefore goes without saying that even as Zuma traverses the outside world he should never look down upon the immense contribution that Botswana continues to offer South Africa in its livelihood.
We may be a small economy but we still remain a relevant and important partner who for all intents and purposes need not be considered simply because some Julius Malema has gone out of his way to call for regime in our country.
In fact it betrays logic why South Africa is determined to look down upon Southern African countries which selflessly committed themselves to its emancipation from the jaws of apartheid.
We are extremely worried that it took Malema’s grumblings to wake Zuma up from his slumber and realize how important a partner and neighbor we were to his esteemed country.
