As the Gulfstream 650 presidential jet ascended from the tarmac of Sir Seretse Khama International Airport to navigate its path back to Kigali on June 28 afternoon, signaling the end of Rwandan President Mr Paul Kagame's two-day state visit to Botswana, two of Africa's success stories had just seen their relationship begin to soar to new heights.
Botswana, Africa's oldest continuous multiparty democracy which emerged from colonial rule as one of the world's poorest and least developed states but moved to middle income status and Rwanda, a post-conflict developmental model, had just agreed to forge a mutually beneficial partnership.
Jointly addressing the media before the departure of the Rwandan entourage the two countries' heads of state, President Mokgweetsi Masisi and President Paul Kagame said the two nations had much to learn from each other and would benefit from establishing a solid partnership.
"We went to Rwanda for part of the tour when the National Vision 2036 was put together. We learnt the importance of embracing ideas and innovation,"
President Masisi said.
"In Botswana some of the things we still need to learn are to do with reducing bureaucracy, breaking the red tape, dealing with challenges of procurement. We have the budget in healthcare and education, but we seem have a challenge with unlocking that budget so it is efficiently used."
Plagued by internal conflict in the early to mid-1990s, Rwanda underwent one of the modern history's worst human carnage, the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, just a year after 1993 Arusha Accords brokered by the Oganisation of African Unity (OAU) had ended a three year civil war there.
The genocide ended with the military victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front led by President Kagame and a process of national healing, including the use of traditional Gacaca tribunal courts to establish the source of the conflict and try perpetrators.
Since the year 2000, Rwanda enjoyed high economic growth and relative peace, with huge strides in physical infrastructure and social development noted by international agencies.
"Rwanda is important to Botswana. There is a lot that we can learn from them that is virtuous. As I go to Rwanda soon in remembrance of the atrocities of the genocide, we must recollect ourselves to make sure that we never allow such heinous acts to visit upon us, wherever we are on the continent. So it is a moral obligation of people even for Botswana, peaceful as it is, that we know what went on and we make sure we keep it at bay, and stand in solidarity with those who went through such a turbulent past,"
Mr Masisi said.
President Kagame revealed that the country had worked on reintegrating society and forging a sense of common national identity in the aftermath of the conflict that pitted the majority Hutu against the minority Tutsi.
"In Rwanda we were placed by bad politics where we were 25 years ago, and we have seen the worst. What we had to do to resolve the many issues had to build on political processes of making sure that in our society we bring back the values of working together even when people are different, focusing on common interest, unity and reconciliation," he revealed.
Part of the success of Rwanda in recent years has been in the upsurge in the use of technology, as the country embraces the use of modern methods with the world moving towards the fourth industrial revolution.
"We embraced the use of technology in all aspects of our economy many years ago. We had a policy for implementation over the past twenty years. There was criticism coming our way from around the year 2000 for investing in technological investment as we laid out fibre optic networks when others said we should rather focus on investing our funds on education, health and agriculture; areas we did not neglect but felt could be complimented by technology. We believe technology cuts across sectors, so it covers those other sectors that are important and we have reaped the benefits,"
Mr Kagame told his audience.
Before he departed, Mr Kagame committed his government to working with Botswana in different sectors that can be identified by the two countries, and pledged to return for another visit.
"We go back with the satisfaction that the visit has been fruitful, and as we depart we will be looking for a period when we can visit again and interact longer," Mr Kagame said.
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