Lebombo border backlog results in taxi threat

A taxi association operating in the Komatipoort area has warned truck drivers hauling ore and coal to the Port of Maputo not to use alternative roads to access South Africa’s severely congested Lebombo border post with Mozambique.
This is the latest development stemming from delayed cargo processing at the transit on the N4 Maputo Corridor.
According to information received by the Transit Assistance Bureau (Transist), the threat has been issued by the Lebombo Taxi Rand Association (LTRA).
A Transist member said that although it could not be confirmed, reliable information pointed to the threat coming from the LTRA.
The notice posted on Transist’s group says: “To all tipper truck drivers that have caused congestion on the road network in and around the town of Komatipoort – your trucks are to use the N4 road only.”
It continues to say that no trucks should use alternative roads such as the Tenbosch Road, about the only road for motorists to access Komatipoort by turning off towards Marloth Park before heading along the Crocodile River to the border town.
The Coopersdal Road that dips southeast before joining with the Strydomblok Road northwest back to the border has also been ‘declared’ off limits to tippers.
Yet more alternative roads that should not be used, the taxi association warned, are the Mananga (R571) and Grimman roads.
“Any truck caught using one of these alternative roads mentioned above, beside the N4, will face our full force.”
Transporters using the Maputo Corridor, where the truck queue often extends for almost ten kilometres east of the border, taking drivers four days or more to cross, have been advised to “exercise caution.
“This has been escalated to the appropriate security forums by the Road Freight Association”, a message on Transist’s WhatsApp group said.