Pretoria - In an effort to integrate devastating fire management, South Africa has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kingdom of Swaziland on cross-border fires.
South Africa's Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson and Swaziland's Tourism and Environmental Minister, Macford Sibandze signed the MoU in Pretoria on Tuesday.
Speaking to BuaNews before signing the agreement, Joemat-Pettersson said: "We are not trying to act like a big brother through this agreement, we realised the need to closely work with our neighbours.
"Through this agreement, we will integrate our fire management control, share resources, remember disasters such as running fires needs a large contingent team, well-equipped or not."
The minister said it was for the first time in the history of the two countries to sign a MoU on cross-border fires.
"To us this is important because we do not want to go to North America or Asia to present ourselves while we are failing to deepen our working relations with our neighbours," she said.
Joemat-Pettersson also extended an invitation to her Swazi counterpart to attend the Forest Day forum, a side event at the COP17 in Durban on December 4.
Sibandze, who is still new in his position, said he was excited to have started his plans of forging relations with South Africa on cross-border fire.
"This is one of the greatest strides to the Kingdom of Swaziland and we are grateful to the on-going support we are always getting from South Africa.
"As a smaller economic country, it has been always not easy for us to deal with devastating raging fires, now that we are well-positioned to a kind-hearted neighbour, we are of the view that we will now tackle this challenge which in the past destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest," he said.
He said that most of the running fires in the Swazi Kingdom are deliberately caused by individuals through negligence or anger.
Sibandze, who studied at Wits University for five years, said very soon, he will organise a Fire indaba in his country which will closely look and address the damage caused by running fires.
"Truly speaking, my personal and that of my country's successes originated from South Africa, so we are hopeful that this agreement will be beneficial to both of us," he said.
The Kingdom of Swaziland and South Africa share common borders and have very strong common cultural links that date back to pre-colonial times.
Both countries are members of key sub-regional, regional and international organisations, including the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), the Southern African Development Cooperation (SADC), the African Union (AU), the Commonwealth and the United Nations.
A joint bilateral agreement between Swaziland and South Africa provides a mechanism for the two countries to cooperate in areas of mutual benefit in ensuring that the healthy relations are maintained and further developed.-BuaNews
