South Africa’s N4 border on the Maputo Corridor has been shut down by election protests on the Ressano Garcia side of the transit at Komatipoort, a source from the road freight community has said.
According to the haulier, who is based at the Lebombo border, protestors are directing trucks to blockade roads before forcing drivers out of their cabins and taking their keys.
This was confirmed by footage sent by Cobus Botha of the Nkomazi Oos (East) agricultural organisation.
The footage shows an ore truck belonging to SG Coal, a tipper fleet based in Middelburg, blocking the road.
The haulier said the blockade came after a message was shared on various long-distance driver WhatsApp channels that the border would be closed off by protestors resisting the recent election results which declared Daniel Chapo of Frelimo as the winner.
However, since then, sporadic incidents of violence have broken out as far north as Beira.
For the most part, supporters of the opposition party, Podemos, allege that Chapo has stolen the election.
Frelimo has said it won 70.7% of the votes but Podemos’s presidential hopeful, Venancio Mondlane, has advocated for public pressure against an election result he claims has been rigged.
European Union election observers have also confirmed that there were "irregularities during counting and unwarranted changes to election results".
Podemos believes that, according to its own election data, the party has won 53% of the votes, equating to 138 parliamentary seats.
More importantly, in the ensuing violence, 11 people have reportedly been shot dead by security forces trying to restore public order.
Yet more footage shared with Freight News by the transport community in Komatipoort shows widespread revolt throughout unidentified areas.
The Maputo Katembe Bridge, an important logistical link for the Port of Maputo, was this afternoon (November 4) gridlocked by traffic streaming across the bay.
The Lebombo haulier said: “Nothing is moving at the border at the moment.
“Nothing is going through or coming out.”
He said general cargo transporters, especially tautliners carrying food and commercial commodities, had withdrawn from the N4 crossing into Mozambique because of the high level of risk at the moment.
“They’re scared they might get looted so they’re not using the border.”
The situation at Ressano Garcia means an eery quiet has settled on the border, which is frequently congested by high volumes of trucks, especially tippers, competing with tautliners and liquid bulkers to squeeze through the notoriously under-capacitated crossing.
“We have had no queue here for a while,” said the haulier, who often has trucks stuck in the ore queue at the border towards the port.
“But without the general cargo guys (tautliner trucks) the border has been free-flowing. But now nothing is moving.”
