Road hauliers desperate to speed up the trip south out of the copper belt are resorting to a 90-kilometre dirt track from Kasumbulesa to Mokambo on the DRC’s side of the border with Zambia.
A liquid bulk tanker source regularly informing FTW Online about the state of congestion at Kasumbalesa, a notorious cross-border choke point between the two countries, said it had been hoped that the empty leg into Zambia would clip some time off their road roster.
But the windy stretch of road to Mokambo, with truckers crossing fingers hoping that Kasumbulesa-like holdups would not await them, is in such a shocking state of disrepair that drivers have been warned to keep to 50 kilometres an hour and less.
“The condition is deplorable,” the source said.
“The empty trucks are really taking a beating on this road and something needs to be done as soon as possible as there is so much going into repair and maintenance costs, not to mention the numerous breakdown recovery costs.”
Whilst undertaking a recent trip on this road himself, the source said he had come across “a number of trucks where breakdowns were attributed mainly to road conditions”.
In the meantime, as per recent reports that Congolese authorities are working hard to alleviate the chaos at Kasumbalesa, congestion appears to have been eased.
Zambian authorities have also been alerted to the plight of hauliers going south and word from officialdom is that they have “promised to raise it in their agenda”.
