Mbeki lauds Botswana for SA liberation

Botswana was then "a vital bridge" between apartheid South Africa and liberated Africa, as well as the rest of the world, Mbeki said. He was in Gaborone Friday night at the invitation of the Sir Ketumile Masire Foundation.

Mbeki reminisced about the symbolic first international match the South African football team played after its re-admission into FIFA in 1991 against the Zebras in Gaborone at the National Stadium in 1992. "A few of us drove from Johannesburg to witness this historic but friendly game, which I think the Botswana team lost, but whose intent and spirit had little to do with sporting prowess and everything to do with what I have said - about Botswana serving as the bridge in the historic transition from apartheid in South Africa to African liberation," he said at the foundation's annual fundraising dinner.