The Botswana High Commission in Pretoria hosted their 57th Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Botswana on the 29 September 2023 at the High Commission.

H.E. Dr Sanji M. Monageng who was the third women to ever be Magistrate in Botswana and has been a Judge of the International Criminal court has earned a reputation for remarkable achievement in the legal realm.
Warmly welcoming Members of the Diplomatic Corp, honourable guests, Dean’s of regional blocks, Nationals of Botswana and distinguished guests, H.E Dr Monageng thanked everyone for their presence.
This years Independence day is celebrated under the theme

” mindsets change for sustainable development and pride ”

The theme resonates with the recent agenda set by H.E. Dr Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, the President of the Republic of Botswana through which he calls the entire nation of Botswana to adopt a renewed mindset aimed at enhancing the countries economic development. The National mindset change campaign is a call for citizens to unite behind a vision of shared principles which are a sense of patriotism and bring back into the National development framework pillars of a high performance culture. These pillars include amongst others providing meticulous and timelous service delivery, working with excellence and courtesy to atain greater results, being self driven and working with little resources to gain more and serving with humility, patience, tolerance, perseverance and kindness. These are the National values which every citizen is expected to aquire and portray as they serve Botswana and all of their customers.
The President emphasizes this ideal in remarks delivered on 8 May 2021 where he stated that

” it is extremely important that we change our mindset if our goal to attain a high income status is to be achieved, we cannot remain locked in the thinking of the unproductive eras and expect to escape the middle income trap, this comes with developing capacity for entrepreneurship and implementing government strategic reforms that put citizens and economic inclusion at the centre of our economic development initiatives fully adopting this mindset change will result in self actualization among our people ”

Botswana continues to prioritize economic diversification in order to shift from heavy reliance on mineral revenue that currently accounts for 80% of her export revenue. Additional investment opportunities exist in the areas of clean energy, water infrastructure projects, electricity, infrastructure, transportation, telecommunications systems, horticulture production , agricultural processing as well as diamond benefication to name a few.
South Africa remains Botswana’s business trading partner as well as a source of Foreign direct investment. The cooperation has a close range of sectors, including health, education, tourism, minerals, agriculture, energy, defense, security, culture, immigarion, environment, science and technology, transport, trade and industry as well as sports and recreation. Progress in the cooperation is monitored through the binational commission which last met in April 2022 in South Africa.

Mr Zane Dangor, the Director -General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation congratulated the Republic of Botswana on their 57th Anniversary of Independence on behalf of the people and Government of South Africa.
Over this period Botswana has made enormous progress economically, socially, culturally and developmentally.
South Africa and Botswana share a common history, share many values, people and a language, its a partnership that will stand the test of time.
On the 22 June 1994 diplomatic relations were created between the two countries . Since then the partnership has grown in strength and this year marks 30 years since the establishment of the structural bilateral mechanisms with Botswana.
Given the lessons of COVID we must be inter dependent not independent and work together, partnerships with Botswana and the region demonstrate this.

Guests enjoyed a live performance by local Botswana artists.

Happy Independence Day Botswana 🇧🇼

by Marion Kate