Photo: His Excellency Dr Hage G. Geingob, President of the Republic of Namibia on the Occasion of the Official Talks During the State Visit to the Republic of South Africa, Pretoria with President Cyril Ramaphosa
Thirty-three years ago, I could not have imagined joining you in a free and non-racial South Africa. I could not have imagined that this day would come, where leaders and citizens of our two formerly oppressed sister nations would hold hands and pull together in the same direction of shared prosperity and peaceful socio-economic development.
Our two Governing Parties, SWAPO and the ANC are inseparably bound by a difficult history of struggle against the tyranny of Apartheid oppression. Our camaraderie has been forged in the fiery cauldron of the war of liberation for the emancipation of both South Africa and Namibia. As freedom fighters, we walked hand in hand and worked side by side in different capitals of Africa such as Dar es Salaam, Lusaka, Cairo, Luanda, Accra, Lagos, and in New York at the United Nations as well as other cities of the world, with the objective to end Apartheid in our two sister countries. Therefore, the bonds of solidarity between our two nations are etched in sweat and blood. They are etched in our collective and glorious history of struggle and triumph against the brutality of Apartheid.
I always say that you can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your neighbors. However, in South Africa, we are not only with a neighbor – we are with friends and comrades with whom we are sharing a painful past and building an optimistic future of shared opportunities.
My term as President of the people of the Land of the Brave is coming to an end in 22 months’ time, on March 21, 2025. I am therefore delighted to be here to consolidate our partnership with the people of South Africa. I thank my Dear Brother, President Ramaphosa for the kind invitation and honor of a State Visit, which I am confident will add another chapter in the excellent bilateral relations between our two countries.
Long live the friendship between Namibia and South Africa.