Editor,

RE: "SA should lift travel restrictions on Rwandans” (The New Times, October 5).

Easing travel between the two countries would unquestionably be mutually beneficial for the two countries and their respective people. But if South Africa—for reasons that remain entirely obscure and so hard to understand for ordinary Rwandans—has decided that special measures must be applied to would-be Rwandan visitors to their country, including as students interested in studying at that country’s schools as paying students, then it is no loss to us.

The world today has ample alternative schools from which to obtain such education. My experience as an unwanted refugee in other people's countries have seared on me the determination never again to hoist myself on those who would rather not have you in their country, especially when your presence would have benefited them.

I say, let the South Africans be. What is more, let us not engage them in the usual inter-state zero-sum gamesmanship that impoverishes us both. We don't have to out-do them in making it equally difficult for South Africans to visit and do business in Rwanda.

Let us welcome everyone who wants to invest in our country, no matter where they are from, as long as such investments respect our laws and benefit our country.

Mwene Kalinda