Chakwera, Ramaphosa hold bilateral talks

President Lazarus Chakwera and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday held bilateral talks on the sidelines of the Sadc summit.

Details of their meeting in Lilongwe remained undisclosed, but State House director of communications Sean Kampondeni confirmed the talks.

The official Twitter account of the South African Presidency also confirmed the meeting and uploaded pictures of the two leaders alongside their ministers of Foreign Affairs.

Reads the tweet: “His Excellency President @CyrillRamaphosa holds bilateral talks with His Excellency President of the Republic of Malawi at the Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe, Malawi ahead of the 41st Sadc Head of State Summit taking place on 17th and 18th August 2021.”

This was the two leaders first bilateral meeting since last December when they met in Pretoria, South Africa.

However, the Pretoria meeting was marred by the escape from South Africa of Malawian prophet Shepherd Bushiri, who was on bail pending criminal and civil trials’ days before Chakwera arrived.

Among others, the Pretoria bilateral summit agreed to ease trade and migration woes for immigrant workers, speeding up the repatriation process for detained migrants.

South Africa is a key trader partner and exports to Malawi in 2019 were worth about R6 billion while imports from Malawi were estimated to be worth R1.3 billion.