Botswana to legalise undocumented Zimbabweans

PRESIDENT Duma Boko of Botswana has revealed intentions to legalise undocumented Zimbabweans in the country by granting temporary work and residence permits, stating that some Zimbabweans possess critical skills in certain sectors that locals do not have.

By leveraging the skills of Zimbabweans, Botswana stands to benefit from skills transfer.

Already, the two neighbouring countries are working on eliminating passport requirements for citizens travelling between them, with the Government fine-tuning the modalities and operational framework to allow people to use identity documents to cross the border.

It is envisaged that once passport requirements have been removed, travellers would only require their respective national identity documents to travel between the two countries.

This initiative aligns with broader efforts within the Southern African Development Community and the African Union (AU) to promote the free movement of people on the continent.

Speaking ahead of his inauguration with BBC Africa Daily podcast, President Boko acknowledged that some Zimbabweans have critical skills that locals do not have.

“They do jobs that would otherwise not get done. So what we need to do is to formalise, have a proper arrangement that recognises that people from Zimbabwe are already here,” President Boko is quoted saying.

He added that once the legalisation process is rolled out, it will assist in skills transfers.

“They do jobs that would otherwise not get done and so there’s no conflict there. In any and every construction site in Botswana, the majority of people with those skills are from Zimbabwe, so we need to do a twin programme of allowing them to come in and we utilise the skills that they have and in the process of utilising these skills we also engage in some sort of skills transfer.

We need to develop these skills and it takes time, so in the interregnum we need to have them come in properly, come in legally and be rewarded appropriately for the skills that they bring,” said President Boko.

President Mnangagwa, who attended the inauguration ceremony, is on record saying the history of both countries showed that there was no need for the use of passports to move from one country to another.

He said passport requirements were vestiges of a fraught colonial past that was no longer fit for purpose in a fast-integrating region.

Zimbabwe and Botswana have enjoyed cordial bilateral ties since pre-independence times, which have been amplified under the Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa.