Mojabeng Moalosi
The minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations Matšepo Molise-Ramakoae will meet her South African counterpart, the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Dr Naledi Pandor at a Joint Bilateral Commission of Cooperation (JBCC) Ministerial meeting to be held in Maseru Today (November 20, 2020).
The JBCC agreement was signed in April 2001 between Lesotho and South Africa. The Agreement is set to be renewed every five years. A preliminary meeting of Senior Officials from both countries took place between November 3 and 4, 2020 in Pretoria, South Africa in preparations for the ministers’ meeting.
The Ministerial meeting will also be preceded by a two-day Senior Officials meeting. During these two days, November 18 and 19, 2020 officials have finalised a document to be adopted at today’s ministerial meeting.
The senior officials’ meeting was broken into different clusters, strategic/political cluster, stability/security cluster, economic cluster, good governance cluster and social cluster.
Issues discussed under these clusters include, reviving negotiations for the facilitation of free movement of goods and persons, cross border issues, safety and security issues, economic, educational, and social issues as well as political and diplomatic issues of mutual interest by the two neighbouring nations.
It is expected that the two heads of the government from both countries will meet in the first quarter of 2021 to adopt and sign the document which will be finalised during today’s meeting.
