Zimbabwe and Botswana are working on a bilateral deal to scrap passport requirements for each other’s citizens.

They join the growing wave of African countries easing entry restrictions for visitors from the continent.

“The two of us have agreed because we are African. We should be able to walk into Botswana, walk into Zambia, walk into Kenya. Why should we restrict ourselves?” Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson said on Thursday, following a discussion he said he had held with Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi.

“We impose constraints on ourselves which are more colonial than they are patriotic, so we agreed that he (President Masisi) himself on his side and myself on my side are going to instruct the relevant departments to ease these constraints of movement of people between our two countries”.