South Africa and Kenya have agreed to create an enabling environment to ease the conditions for doing business between the two countries.

The President said this on Tuesday at a media briefing held in Nairobi, Kenya, at the conclusion of official discussions with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. President Zuma said discussions were quite fruitful and productive.

“The Tripartite Free Trade Area – covering the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) – is one of the practical initiatives taken by governments to facilitate trade and investment in the continent, consistent with our determined effort to implement the African Union Agenda 2063 and its Plan of Action.

“We welcome the signing of new bilateral agreements today. The signing of these instruments is a clear indication of our collective determination to take our relations to a higher level.

“We are indeed working towards a strategic partnership anchored on economic and security cooperation. In our deliberations, we reviewed a wide range of bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest,” said President Zuma.

The cooperation between the two countries spans across a number of fields, and the President said they have taken these relations to a higher level today.

“We see a lot of room for the further expansion of relations. Over the years, there has been a remarkable increase in economic relations between our two countries, as demonstrated by the large number of South African companies operating in Kenya.

“To date, over 60 South African companies are doing business here. Trade cooperation continues to show an upward mobility, thus making Kenya one of South Africa's top trading partners on the continent.

“We will later today interact with the South Africa-Kenya Business Forum and encourage further economic cooperation,” said the President.

African development

With regard to continental developments, the two Presidents discussed issues related to peace and security in the continent.

President Zuma said they have noted with great concern the challenges posed by terrorism and extremist groups that continue to affect some of African countries on the continent.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms all forms of terrorism and extremism. We reiterate the need for joint regional and continental efforts towards countering these negative elements. Since we are in East Africa, it was only natural that we spent considerable time discussing the current challenges in Burundi, South Sudan and Somalia.

“We expressed our grave concern about the ongoing conflicts in these sister countries, which affect the entire region. We urge the government of Burundi and people of Burundi to speed up the national dialogue process under the stewardship of the East African Community.”

He said further fighting will only exacerbate the human suffering in South Sudan.

“On the DRC, we urge all stakeholders to participate in the national dialogue process. We hope that the dialogue will come up with a clear roadmap towards elections,” said the President.

Considering their commitment to finding African solutions to African problems, President Zuma said they have agreed to work together to deal with these challenges.

The two Heads of State reiterated their common position on the need to reform the multilateral institutions, including the United Nations Security Council, to better represent the interests of the developing world.

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Joint Press Briefing

Nairobi, 11 October 2016

Speech by His Excellency Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta

Mr. President, it is great to welcome you on this, the first State Visit to our country by a South African Head of State.

My Administration has looked forward to this moment. It is my pleasure to extend a warm welcome to you on behalf of the people of Kenya. 

Your visit takes place as our continent navigates a critical juncture in its journey toward the prosperity and peace pursued by successive generations of Africans. Our partnership can provide the vision, means and frameworks to leverage the power of entrepreneurship latent in our people, and to productively harness the energy and creativity of our youth.

In a few hours, President Zuma and I will address hundreds of South African and Kenyan investors and entrepreneurs.

Their coming together, the stretch of their continental and global ambitions, are the ingredients for building our relationship into a powerful engine for prosperity.

Thanks to them, and many like them, Africa is being redefined from the false images of hopelessness that have been peddled in years past. 

Today, the world sees in Africa a continent able to sustain growth despite a global slowdown; a youthful population that harnessed promises decades of productivity; and African governments with an increased appetite and capability to collaborate and solve big challenges.

South Africa and Kenya are important actors on the continental stage, and carry particularly heavy responsibilities in helping shape the policies that drive the continent. 

I am therefore particularly pleased by President Zuma’s visit since it offers us a chance to better understand one another, and strengthen our bond so that it helps continue raising this continent to new heights.

Critical to our agenda is strengthening our government-to-government, business-to-business, and our people-to-people relations. Central to achieving this aim is our taking conscious steps to remove barriers to the movement of peoples, goods and services.

Today we have taken some of those steps.

First, we have agreed to purposely and practically increase trade between our two countries. To turn into reality the immense untapped potential to expand the scale of our commercial relations. We can exploit that potential by progressively removing all barriers to trade. 

We are glad that South Africa understands the anxiety about non-tariff barriers that prevent us from exporting tea, coffee or soda ash. Mr. President, I applaud your commitment to urgently resolving this outstanding matter.

Second, I am happy to report that the South African government will consider our request that Kenyan nationals be granted visa on arrival. This is a privilege that Kenya already extends to South African nationals. In our view, there is no reason why both our countries cannot agree on exemption of visas for each other’s citizens. Such an action would go a long way to allowing our people to get to know one another to mutual benefit.

Third, we have signed two Memoranda of Understanding in the field of security. One for police cooperation and one for defence cooperation. These agreements are aimed at enhancing regional and continental security which are a pre-requisite for development.

President Zuma and I also agreed to broaden our counterterrorism partnership, to focus on new areas such as cyber security, the financing of terrorism, and stemming radicalization.

Fourth, we signed an agreement for south African investment in the development of LAPPSET, a pivotal project for Kenya, the region, and our continent. Investment in Africa by Africans is critical to the growth of intra-African trade and investment.

Last but not least, we have agreed to expand our co-operation in different areas such as learning from each other’s financial service sectors, and cooperating in technical and vocational training. In this regard, we have instructed our Foreign Affairs ministries to commence discussions to develop a special framework to deepen and enhance our cooperation further.

Our relationship is called to bear the weight of a continent’s urgent expectations of peace, prosperity and dignity. Our bilateral agreements help forge this bond, so that from it we can prove to be equal to the dreams of our forefathers, the hopes of our citizens, and to willingly shoulder responsibility for those unborn.

With these reflections, let me now invite my Brother, President Zuma, to say a few words.

Thank you.

Source: State House

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Remarks by President Jacob Zuma

Allow me Mr President to start by extending my sincere gratitude to you for inviting us to visit this beautiful country.

I thank you for your warm welcome and the hospitality extended to my delegation since our arrival.

I concur fully with the remarks by President Kenyatta.

Indeed, we have just concluded our discussions which were quite fruitful and productive.

In our deliberations, we reviewed a wide range of bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest.

The cooperation between our two countries spans across a number of fields and today, we have taken theses relations to a higher level.

We see a lot of room for the further expansion of relations. Over the years, there has been remarkable increase in economic relations between our two countries as demonstrated by the large number of the South African companies operating in Kenya.

To date, over sixty South African companies are doing business here.

Trade cooperation continues to show an upward mobility, thus making Kenya one of South Africa's top trading partners on the Continent. We will later today interact with the South Africa-Kenya Business Forum and encourage further economic cooperation.

We have also agreed to create an enabling environment to ease the manner of doing business in our respective countries.

The Tripartite Free Trade Area – covering COMESA, East African Community and Southern African Development Community, is one of the practical initiatives taken by Governments to facilitate trade and investment in the Continent, consistent with our determined effort to implement the African Union Agenda 2063 and its Plan of Action.

We welcome the signing of new bilateral agreements today.

The signing of these instruments is a clear indication of our collective determination to take our relations to a higher level.

We are indeed working towards a strategic partnership anchored on economic and security cooperation.

With regard to continental developments, we discussed issues related to peace and security in the continent.

We have noted with great concern the challenges posed by terrorism and extremist groups that continue to affect some of our countries on the continent. We condemn in the strongest possible terms all forms of terrorism and extremism.

We reiterate the need for joint regional and continental efforts towards countering these negative elements.

Since we are in East Africa, it was only natural that we spent considerable time discussing the current challenges in Burundi, South Sudan and Somalia.

We expressed our grave concern about the on-going conflicts in these sister countries which affect the entire region.

We urge the Government of Burundi and people of Burundi to speed up the national dialogue process under the stewardship of the East African Community.

We condemn the recent call by the SPLM-In-Opposition under Dr Riek Machar for a popular armed resistance against the government in Juba. There is absolutely no need for fighting.

Further fighting will only exacerbate the human suffering in South Sudan. We call on Dr Riek Machar to return to Juba and participate in the Transitional Government.

On the DRC, we urge all stakeholders to participate in the national dialogue process. We hope that the dialogue will come up with a clear roadmap towards elections.

Considering our commitment to finding African solutions to the African problems, we have agreed to work together to deal with these challenges.

We concluded our discussions by reiterating our common position on the need to reform the multilateral institutions, including the United Nations Security Council to better represent the interests of the developing world.

We are happy and satisfied that this visit has indeed taken relations between South Africa and Kenya to a much higher level.

We look forward to increased and deeper cooperation, friendship and solidarity between the two nations.

I thank you.

The Agreements signed today are the following:

• Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Malusi Gigaba signed an agreement on Visa Waiver for Diplomatic and Official Passport Holders.

• Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ms Maite Nkoana-Mashabane signed an agreement on Mutual Assistance between Customs Administrations.

• Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Ms Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula signed an agreement on Military Training, Visits and Technical Assistance.

• Minister of Police, Mr Nathi Nhleko signed a Memorandum of Understanding on issues related to Police Cooperation.

• Minister of Environmental Affairs, Ms Edna Molewa signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the field of Biodiversity Conservation and Management, and

• Minister of Public Enterprise, Ms Lynne Brown signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Lamu-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor.

Source: The Presidency