James Hall
PLANS TO expand cross border traffic between Mozambique and Swaziland have suffered a
set-back with the indefinite postponement of a new border station, at Mhlumeni.
Swaziland has spent upward of R10 million to build customs offices, staff houses, and border gate facilities. Work is nearly completed by Group Five contractors. But Mozambique has yet to prepare its border post, and is unlikely to do so anytime soon, according to sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Foreign Minister Albert Shabangu told parliament that the Mozambique government was short of funds to complete the border post, despite treaty obligations that set up a timetable for completion of the project.
Efforts are being made to operate the border post
as soon as possible, Shabangu testified. People have to use this facility.
There is great demand for it, and it is strategically situated to expedite passenger and commercial traffic from Maputo through Swaziland and onto Gauteng and Mpumalanga. It is our hope that Mozambique will finally secure funds to undertake the project.
The Mhlumeni border post, when opened, will double the capacity for trans-border traffic. When it was closed twenty years ago during the height of the Mozambique civil war, only one border post remained to provide access to and from Maputo via Swaziland, at Lomahasha. This situation will persist until Mhlumeni is opened.
The Mhlumeni border post reopening is a component of the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative, entered into by South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland aimed at developing the tri-nation's common usage of the Lubombo range. Despite economic set-backs suffered due to this year's cyclones, the recovering Mozambique trucking industry is increasing cross-border traffic with Swaziland, and putting what may soon be intolerable pressure on the Lomahasha border post.
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