WINDHOEK: President Hage Geingob said for African countries to overcome deficits in socio-economic architectures guaranteeing food security and job creation, countries need political stability.
Geingob made the remarks here on Friday at the 3rd session of the Namibia-South Africa bi-national commission.
“I have often spoken of the ‘New Africa’, where our governance and macro-economic architectures are in place and where the focus needs to turn to overcoming deficits in our socio-economic architectures. This cannot take place in the midst of political instability. Therefore, we should continue to work together at the bilateral and multilateral levels to promote peace, goodwill and understanding amongst all Africans,” said the president.
Geingob said while Namibia and South Africa celebrate political stability, this cannot be said in some areas of the African continent as currently a number of political, economic and security issues remain unresolved.
“While much of the continent enjoys the benefits of democracy, peace and stability, there are still pockets of insecurity and conflict. In this regard, we need to redouble our efforts and initiatives to resolve these conflicts and many of which continue to cause human suffering and displacement,” he said.
President Geingob added that such conflicts hinder the African march to silence the guns, condemning the spate of unconstitutional changes of government among some African countries, namely Mali, Gabon, Burkina Faso and Niger.
He further said South Africa and Namibia should redouble their efforts at ensuring continental integration, and remain committed to the implementation of the developmental aspirations of the AU Agenda 2063 and the UN Agenda 2030.
“The deeper integration of the economies of the Southern African Development Community countries will benefit all of us in several ways and will assist our respective domestic markets, thus our bilateral objectives should be in support of regional development,” Geingob said.
He said that given the fact that a large majority of Namibia’s imports emanate from South Africa, resulting in a trade imbalance, the bi-national commission creates a platform for the two countries to explore opportunities to balancing trade between Namibia and South Africa.
The 3rd session of the Namibia-South Africa bi-national commission was attended by ministers and senior government officials from both countries alongside South Africa President, Cyril Ramaphosa.
Geingob urged the respective ministers and senior officials who participated in the session to ensure the implementation of the recommendations in the agreed minutes.
“It is true that we have brilliant plans, but we often lack implementation thereof, let us change this habit by becoming efficient thus effective implementers,” he urged.
Source: The Namibia Press Agency