South Africa\u2019s Ambassador to Uganda, Professor Lekoa Solly Mollo, has called for the scrapping of entry visas between the two countries.<\/p>\n
Mollo told Uganda\u2019s Observer newspaper on Wednesday that visa-free travel between the two countries was important because of the two countries\u2019 political history and growing trade ties.<\/p>\n
Mollo added that with the current number of Ugandans going to South Africa and South Africans coming to Uganda for trade, business, education and tourism surging, there was a need to abolish visas and ease travel for the economic development of both countries, the Observer reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrade relations between the two countries have increased with over 70 South African companies such as MTN and Stanbic working in Uganda,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren go to school between the two countries and even in Makerere University, we have South Africans, we have them in primary schools and the same applies to Ugandans studying in South Africa,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The fact that Uganda had played a key role in South Africa\u2019s liberation from apartheid was further reason to scrap the visa system, said Mollo.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot talk about South Africa\u2019s freedom without talking about Uganda, the two countries that provided us a home were Uganda and Tanzania,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe relationship between Uganda and South Africa is a historical one. It\u2019s not a relationship that was crafted with the signing of memorandums in boardrooms, but a relationship born out of the struggle for freedom in the trenches of battle through sweat and blood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mollo told the African News Agency (ANA) during an interview earlier in the year that he had been based in Uganda as a cadre of the African National Congress\u2019 armed wing Umkhonto We Sizwe during the liberation struggle and that he wouldn\u2019t forget how good Kampala had been to both him and his comrades.<\/p>\n
According to Mollo, preparations to make this a reality were underway after both the South African and Ugandan authorities responded positively to the idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt an official level, the request has already been made and technocrats of both countries are working on all those things. However, it\u2019s not something easy because of terrorism,\u201d Mollo said.<\/p>\n
The ambassador went on to explain that before such a move could take place, security agencies of both countries and Interpol needed to be engaged in the move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South Africa\u2019s Ambassador to Uganda, Professor Lekoa Solly Mollo, has called for the scrapping of entry visas between the two countries. Mollo told Uganda\u2019s Observer newspaper on Wednesday that visa-free travel between the two countries was important because of the two countries\u2019 political history and growing trade ties. Mollo added that with the current number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":188473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[745],"tags":[5770,5771,5773,5766,5765,2850,5768,5769,576,5774,5772,5767],"class_list":["post-7007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uganda","tag-africa-new","tag-africa-struggle","tag-anc-terrorism","tag-entry-visas","tag-lekoa-solly-mollo","tag-liberation-struggle","tag-struggle-for-freedom","tag-struggle-struggle-struggle","tag-terrorism","tag-uganda-terrorism","tag-umkhonto-we-sizwe","tag-visas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}