Ramaphosa made the revelation on Tuesday as he gave comments as a panelist in the African Continental Free Trade Area Business Forum on the margins of the African Union Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Governments held at Kigali Convention Center.
Asked by a Ugandan journalist, Andrew Mwenda about how Africa can create a Free Trade Area when there are still hurdles in accessing visas and integration, Ramaphosa said that people should consider visa issues between Rwanda and South Africa as a matter that has been solved.
“I think the issues of Visas by Rwandese to South Africa consider it as a matter that is solved. We have been talking earlier with President Paul Kagame and we have decided that we are going to put the relationship between South Africa and Rwanda on a much better footing,” he said.
He said that gaps and the challenges that both countries had are going to be resolved through ministers of international relations.
“We have beautiful ministers who are going to work on this immediately. They are going to work on this, bring us solutions and I and president Kagame are going to sign what the two sisters are going to bring to the table,” he added.
He added that people should consider that the problem in the solved basket.
Ramaphosa who will also join other Heads of States in the signing of agreement establishing African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) said the visa problem will be solved based on principals.
“The principal here is you cannot have Africa as the Free Trade Area and impede the movement of people and business opportunities, you can’t have that. So, we are going to solve this based on that principal as it unlocks a lot of opportunities including the flow of money, people and everything else,” he explained.
On Tuesday Ramaphosa also paid a courtesy call on President Kagame, at Village Urugwiro.
Rwandans, with the exception of government officials carrying diplomatic and service passports have not been able to legally travel to South Africa since 2014 following a falling out over South Africa’s offer of asylum to people Rwanda considered dissidents.
In contrast, South Africans get visas upon arrival in Rwanda.
Once the problem is solved among others, the newly elected South African President Ramaphosa will have brought a new chapter to the relationship between both countries.
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