THE CYCLONIC rains at the end of February cut vital trade routes between SA and neighbouring states.
Road and rail lines have been washed out, trucks and trains trapped by the floods, and massive efforts required to sort out the effects of the rain storm.
Never mind the TV reports that Northern Province children were finding it difficult to get to school, said Brian Kalshoven, managing director. of Beit Bridge Border Clearing Agency. What about the fact that Beit Bridge border post was closed for four days, and all north and southbound road traffic stopped.
After the rains of the night of Thursday, February 24, adverse reports flooded in from Kalshoven to SAAFF (SA Association of Freight Forwarders);
l The N1 has been cut at Sand River - about 10 kilometres south of Messina;
l The small bridge near Beit Bridge - which caused a problem a short while ago - has been washed away again;
l The road between Louis Trichardt and Beit Bridge has been closed. The road to Beit Bridge via Alldays, however, is still open;
l On the Zimbabwe side, the road to Harare is also closed due to the Bubye River being over the road. Unconfirmed reports say that roads around Bulawayo have been damaged, but not closed.
After all this, some 600 trucks were stuck on each side of the border.
Jeanette Kriel, the SAAFF representative at the Komatipoort border post into Mozambique, also had her bit to add. The ground around the border post and the old airport is in a very poor (muddy) condition, and trucks are having to be towed by tractors.
Spoornet also reported in with bad news.
Due to washaways on the line between Louis Trichardt and Messina, said one, the line will be closed for repairs for the next three months.
Rail traffic for Zimbabwe, SAAFF told its members, can be rerouted via Botswana. But at the appropriate additional cost.
The second Spoornet missive reported that all was clear on the SA side of the rail line from Gauteng to Maputo. But, it added, the line in Mozambique is under water in parts. This has resulted in a temporary discontinuance of the service.
Returning to Beit Bridge, the weather, waters and warnings began to clear up by March 1.
Work continues on the washaway at the site
near Beit Bridge, said Kalshoven's e-mail of that date. The by-pass is still workable, but movement is very slow for the commercial vehicles crossing there.
While Kalshoven described the customs as very helpful and doing all they can to expedite vehicle movement, they had to lay down strict conditions for truck drivers already in the border area, as they struggled to clear the crisis.
All vehicles are being given only 30 minutes to reach the supervision bay.
Any delays of over 45 minutes are immediately slapped with a R1 000 penalty for the first offence. Delay things twice, and the truck driver faces a R5 000 ticket.
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