SA-registered truck goes for a dive in Zambezi river Leonard Neill A RECENT incident involving a South African-registered truck which tipped into the Zambezi River while boarding the ferry at Kazungula on the Botswana-Zambia border has sparked a call from both the Zambian Federation of Hauliers and the Botswana Hauliers Association for more stringent control of vehicles using the border crossing. The facility is popular with South African trucking companies, providing the quickest route to Zambia and the DRC. Both groups have claimed that the vehicle was overloaded with a cargo of cobalt concentrate being transported from Zambia to South Africa. These claims vary between 100-120 tons in a region where 45 ton loads are the maximum allowed. The vehicle caused the ferry to tilt resulting in the truck and the right hand side engines on the ferry falling into the river. A number of people on the ferry were also thrown into the water with an unofficial count of 40 passengers having boarded. At the time of going to press four bodies had been recovered but a search is continuing for more. Some people were known to have swum to safety. A smaller ferry has been brought into service to assist with the carriage of vehicles - restricted to a single horse and trailer at a time - until the damaged ferry is repaired. Truckers can reroute through Zimabwe or further afield through Katima Mulilo in Namibia. An official of the Zambian Federation of Hauliers believes the haulier involved should be brought to Zambia to face charges, and have his licence withdrawn. Botswana Hauliers’ Association chairman Mike Steel told FTW that his organisation had been concerned about overloading on the route for some time, and had been in negotiations with the Botswana government and road officials on the matter. “We are waiting on the full details of this latest incident before making any further comment,” he said.
