PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA’S MEDIA BRIEFING REMARKS ON THE OCCASION OF THE WORKING VISIT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALAWI, DR LAZARUS MCCARTHY CHAKWERA, 13 NOVEMBER 2020, TSHWANE

1. PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA’S MEDIA BRIEFING REMARKS ON THE OCCASION OF THE WORKING
VISIT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALAWI, DR LAZARUS MCCARTHY CHAKWERA, 13
NOVEMBER 2020, TSHWANE
His Excellency, President Lazarus Chakwera,
Honourable Ministers,
Members of the Media,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to firstly express my sincere gratitude to His Excellency President Lazarus Chakwera for
gracing us with his presence here today.
This working visit is a depiction of the importance of the relations between our two countries.
South Africa attaches great importance to maintaining warm and cordial relations with Malawi.
Built on historic foundations, our bilateral cooperation has grown, deepened and matured.
We have concluded successful deliberations with His Excellency President Chakwera, in which we
reviewed our bilateral cooperation and expressed satisfaction with the ever-expanding ties between
our countries.
We noted the expiry of the instrument of cooperation, the Joint Commission for Cooperation, which
is the mechanism for bilateral engagements between South Africa and Malawi and we expressed our
wish to elevate the Mechanism to Ministerial level.
We noted the existence of 15 Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding between our two
countries, covering a wide range of areas.
We have emphasised the need to implement all these agreements and finalise all outstanding ones.

2. We emphasised the need for these Agreements to transform lives and positively contribute to
combating the challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality.
Economic cooperation between our two countries continues to show steady growth, as
demonstrated by the large number of South African companies operating in Malawi.
Malawi remains one of the most important trading partners for South Africa.
We have committed both our governments to strengthen cooperation on trade and investment,
agriculture, defence, culture, tourism, gender and health, among others.
We welcomed the signing of the Economic Cooperation Agreement, and further agreed to work
together to identify specific areas in which South African and Malawian companies can do business.
We also endeavoured to put more emphasis on people-to-people cooperation between our two
countries given that we are one people.
Cooperation needs to be advanced in areas such as culture, sport and recreation in an effort to bring
the people of our two countries together.
We reviewed the state of peace and security in Africa, specifically Southern Africa, and noted the
need for collaborative efforts in addressing threats to peace and security such as terrorism,
extremism and insurgencies.
We noted that our region is relatively peaceful and stable while there remain areas of concern.
We committed ourselves to working together to assist sister countries in the region facing political
and security challenges.
We noted with concern the ongoing political instability in Northern Mozambique and the Eastern
DRC.

3. We also reiterated our common view on the need to promote regional peace and security
considering that Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania are part of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the
eastern DRC though the Force Intervention Brigade.
Malawi is the incoming Chairperson of SADC while South Africa is the incoming Chairperson of the
SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.
In this regard, we will work together towards regional integration and in support of key objectives of
the SADC and those of the AU.
We deliberated on the effect of the global COVID-19 pandemic on our economies.
In this regard, we undertook to continue with regional efforts towards devising a regional economic
recovery strategy.
These efforts will be linked to the promotion of intra-Africa trade through the African Continental
Free Trade Area.
Following our fruitful discussions of today, it is clear to me that we have further laid a solid
foundation to propel our relations to a much higher level.
I strongly believe all the necessary elements are in place to achieve this.
It remains up to us to ensure the partnership between our countries brings real and lasting benefits
to our respective peoples and all the people of Southern Africa.
I thank you.
ISSUED BY THE PRESIDENCY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA