President Cyril Ramaphosa believes South Africa will continue to build on its strong ties with Eswatini for many years to come following his visit to the neighbouring state.
Ramaphosa returned from Eswatini where he discussed bilateral relations between the two countries.
Ramaphosa met with King Mswati III and they agreed to continue to work together in a number of areas.
The president was on a one-day visit to the neighbouring state to discuss political and trade partnerships with its neighbour.
South Africa is a major trading partner for several countries in the region.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said the president also met with the Queen Mother during his visit.
He then later had a meeting with King Mswati III.
“The two leaders affirmed their commitment to strong historical bonds between their two countries, including growing political and trade ties. They also highlighted the historical success of collaboration between the two countries, where the two leaders collaborated to work together for a better future,” said Magwenya.
The visit to Eswatini by Ramaphosa came after he reported progress in the recovery of the economy following his meeting with business last week.
Ramaphosa said the National Logistics Crisis Committee has made progress in the last year to improve the performance of the freight logistics sector.
There has also been improvement in the performance of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) with the recovery of more railway lines.
Transnet has also shown improvement in its performance in the last few months.
“Transnet’s recovery plan is showing significant progress, with an additional 10 million tonnes (Mt) recovered against the pre-recovery trend. The Durban Port has seen a 73% reduction in the number of vessels at anchorage since November 2023. Work is ongoing to improve border crossings on the most critical road corridors, significant progress has been made in recent months in reducing processing times at priority border posts.
“Prasa continues to recover rail services, with 28 out of 40 lines fully operational and functional stations increased from 236 to 256 across the county’s metropolitan areas,” said Magwenya.
The meeting also agreed to get more railway lines operational following vandalism and destruction of these lines.
Ramaphosa and business agreed to deploy more security in rail and port corridors.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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