MBOMBELA- Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza will as from tomorrow lead a delegation on an outbound mission to Angola in the provinces of Luanda and Cuando Cubango scheduled from May 5 until May 8.
The aim of the mission is to finalise the memorandum of understanding covering the areas of cooperation in agriculture and forestry, tourism and nature conservation, infrastructure development, trade and investment.
The Mpumalanga Provincial Government’s mission to Angola follows a three-day investment fact finding inbound mission to Mpumalanga by the former Governor of Cuando Cubango, General Higino Carneiro, in July last year.
In this week’s mission, Premier Mabuza will be meeting with the current Governor for Cuando Cubango Mr Pedro Mutindi as well as General Carneiro who is now the current Governor of Luanda province in Angola.
In their Mpumalanga meeting in July last year, both Premier Mabuza and General Carneiro indicated an intention to start the working relations between the two provinces, after the General had visited various provincial government’s infrastructure investment projects such as the site for international convention centre, cultural hub, skywalk, cable way as well as the Manyeleti Nature Reserve.
Premier Mabuza had initially and personally visited the Province of Cuando Cubango in honour of the invitation from the General Carneiro, who had enticed him with various business opportunities, which Mpumalanga business people could tap into especially in the mining and agricultural sectors.
“The General, took me around his province, I was fascinated by lots and lots of water and huge space, which I believe our business people in Mpumalanga can go and do business on stock and plant farming there. There is potential in the continent provided we work together in boosting our economies.
“As South Africans, we must also remember that the Angolans, just like other countries, the Angolans sacrificed their lives for our liberation, the least we can do in appreciation is to work together and empower ourselves.
“The Province of Cuando Cubango hosted our comrades, gave them food during the struggle, we can only strengthen our long friendship because we cannot be separated, we are one family.
“I agree that we need to sign a memorandum of understanding that will detail how we will work together going forward. The General’s visit in our province to see for himself what we can offer them, is the beginning of the long road that we must travel together,” said Mabuza last year.
General Carneiro said that there were various business opportunities in Angola and they had decided to go all out and start relations with other partners outside their country.
He said they had enough land for farming and that there were also business opportunities on mining and tourism.
“Our province was destroyed by the war, therefore we have a little infrastructure, but we have many opportunities for the investors since we are in the process of reconstruction and building in our country.
“Given the economic situation we have in our country, we have realized that we need to make priorities and make partnerships. We hope we can cooperate with Mpumalanga province and strengthen the relations between our two countries,” said General Carneiro in the July meeting in Mpumalanga.
Premier Mabuza will be accompanied by Mbombela Local Municipality Mayor Sibusiso Mathonsi, Mpumalanga Provincial Administration Director-General Thulani Mdakane, MEGA CEO Xola Sithole and MTPA Acting CEO Abe Sibiya.
