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Mugabe Here Tomorrow

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By Petronella Sibeene WINDHOEK Zimbabwean President Robert Gabriel Mugabe is scheduled to arrive in the country tomorrow afternoon for a four-day State visit. First Lady Grace Mugabe will accompany Mugabe, who turned 83 years last week Wednesday. Mugabe and his entourage will arrive at Hosea Kutako International airport tomorrow afternoon and will be welcomed by President Hifikepunye Pohamba and other top government officials. Apart from the closed-door official talks that the two Heads of State will hold, Mugabe is expected to visit the diamond company Lev Leviev on Wednesday. He will also pay respects to the fallen heroes and heroines of Namibia by laying a wreath at Heroes Acre. On Thursday, the visiting President will address the business community in Namibia at the coastal town of Swakopmund. He is expected to visit the Namibia Ports Company (Namport) and Merlus Sea Food Processors. Before his departure on Friday morning, Mugabe will address the Zimbabwean expatriate community in Namibia. While Mugabe will be busy with matters of the two States, the Zimbabwean First Lady with the Namibian First Lady Penehupifo Pohamba will have meetings to look into projects of common interest. The Zimbabwean First Lady will visit Kaitoo Leather project in Katutura, the after-school centre and the charity organisation that assists Widows/Widowers and Orphans of HIV and AIDS in Namibia (OEWONA). In light of Mugabe’s visit, the National Society for Human Rights Executive Director Phil ya Nangoloh yesterday wrote a letter to President Pohamba informing him of the organisation’s intentions behind the planned anti-Mugabe demonstration. “On our part together with the civil society colleagues, we will be holding … Wednesday a peaceful demonstration in front of the Zimbabwean embassy in Windhoek to register our strongest disapproval of the human rights, humanitarian and political situation in Zimbabwe and to express our solidarity with oppressed Zimbabwean people,” the letter reads. Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs Marco Hausiku and his Zimbabwean counterpart Simbarashe Mumbengegwi will tomorrow officially open the 4th Session of the Zimbabwe-Namibia Joint Permanent Commission of Cooperation. This session will discuss and review ongoing cooperation in areas of education, training and human resources development, cultural cooperation, youth and sport development, information and broadcasting, gender, agriculture, environmental and land issues, judicial matters, commerce and industry, mining, water affairs, transport and communication. Possible new areas of cooperation might also be considered.