New Swazi minister puts the spotlight on infrastructure

MBABANE – The five-year term of Swaziland’s new Minister of Public Works of Transport, Lindiwe Dlamini, which commenced in November 2013, will witness some significant transportation infrastructure projects. The opening of the long-discussed Sikhupe Airport may happen by year’s end. In 2017, the Lothair, SA to Sidvokodvo, Swaziland rail link will be completed. A bypass road around the commercial hub Manzini is the next major road transport project on the horizon and is intended to facilitate travel to the Sikhupe Airport to the east. In terms of usage and commercial pay-off, the rail line appears promising. Rail shippers from Gauteng will no longer have to bypass Swaziland and travel to Komatipoort for an eastward turn to Maputo. The new line will allow direct northward passage through the country. The only certainty about Sikhupe is that it will replace the national airport operating out of the Matsapha Industrial Estate adjacent to Manzini. Only one airline serves Swaziland, Swaziland Airlink, with one route, to and from Johannesburg. Airline officials objected to the move to Sikhupe, which would inconvenience passengers by adding 45 minutes additional ground travel time. However, the air carrier is majority owned by the Swaziland government, which made its decision long ago to spend an estimated R1 billion on a new air facility. No other airlines have committed to using the airport. One project that the new transport minister will not likely pursue is the tolling of the main highway connecting Mbabane and Manzini. The tolling was vociferously championed by her predecessor before even louder objections from Mbabane’s Ezulwini suburb where the toll plaza was to be located caused the plan to be shelved. Road construction and maintenance continues to be financed from government’s general fund and a fee on foreign-registered vehicles entering the country. A landlocked country, Swaziland depends on road links to SA to move all its exports and imports but for some bulk commodities that travel more cheaply by rail. Air freight volumes are negligible and may fall further due to higher road transport costs to and from the Sikhupe airport.