To mark the completion of several expensive road infrastructure projects that will facilitate land freight transportation, Eswatini's ruler, King Mswati III, spent one day this week on a whirlwind ribbon-cutting trip to open three new projects in Malkerns, Manzini and Matsapha.
"These are investments in our future, so take care of them because they will make doing business easier in Eswatini," the king said.
In Manzini, a complicated interchange on the east side of Eswatini's commercial hub, nicknamed "Spaghetti" by locals because of its tangle of on- and off-ramps, was used by the king's motorcade to showcase a project intended to re-route traffic away from the congested city centre.
The interchange was built at a price of nearly R500 million.
However, construction has only just begun to inconvenience the residents of Manzini, with the announcement of the interchange's intended usage as a link to a four-kilometre-long overhead highway.
The elevated roadway was approved by the cabinet six months ago, and will run from the new interchange on the east, travel above the Mzimnene River that marks the northern border of the central business district, and connect with the N-2 highway to Mbabane at the KaKhoza township west of the capital.
The elevated highway will be Eswatini's most ambitious public works project since the erection of the Komati Basin Dam, a co-project with South Africa in the 1990s.
When completed, like the new highway interchange on a small scale, the skyway will greatly facilitate road freight transport from Maputo.
It also points east to the Matsapha Industrial Estate bordering Manzini to the west.
King Mswati left for Matsapha, where Eswatini's manufacturing and fuel depots are concentrated, after his Manzini chores, to open a new R150 million shopping mall and connecting road infrastructure.
A historical footnote was achieved when he became the first Swazi king to personally shop at Pick 'n Pay, although an aide pushed the trolley.
He performed the same duty in the next town due west, Malkerns, when he officiated at the opening of another R150 million commercial complex and roads upgrade there.
Meanwhile, road freight trucking companies and logistics firms have readied additional personnel and vehicles to deliver service to the new commercial complexes.
