Oshoek border may become 24/7 operation by year’s end

Until Swaziland is incorporated into South Africa (or the other way around if the Swaziland Border Adjustment Committee that is eyeing sections of KwaZulu/Natal and Mpumalanga have their way), the landlocked kingdom is like a mountain to SA shippers – either you go around or burrow through. The country itself has recognised its geographical position as either a hindrance or facilitator of SA cargo headed from Gauteng to Durban and Maputo, and chooses to be the latter. For more than a decade major investments have been made to expand the national highway network. A key section was opened earlier this year, a bypass road around downtown Mbabane that was intended to save time for traffic from Oshoek Border Post, the most heavily utilised entry point for road freight coming from Gauteng to the Matsapha Industrial Estate outside the commercial town Manzini. The section of highway from Oshoek to Ezulwini, an upscale suburb immediately east of Mbabane, is slated to become a toll road early next year. The Oshoek Border Post may become a 24/7 operation at year’s end, which would greatly aid SA/ Swaziland road traffic and mirror the 24/7 operations that went into effect on the opposite side of the country earlier this year at the Mhlumene Border Post with Mozambique. Travelling through Swaziland, Gauteng to Maputo road traffic will move more quickly than via any other route, and do so around the clock. Swaziland Railway earns significant income from the transhipment of SA goods through the country, and one day when a rail line is extended west from Oshoek to Gauteng, the rail network will be even more advantageous to SA shippers. Travellers by air into and out of the country are already bemoaning the inconvenience they will face when Swaziland’s airport is relocated next year to the dusty lowveld hamlet of Sikhupe, an hour or so east of the current airport at Matsapha. But government planners say the new facility will allow for the landing of large cargo-bearing aircraft, making larger scale air cargo transport a possibility in the country for the first time. With the proliferation of traffic that the new highways have brought have come calls for increased safety standards, including vehicle roadworthiness inspections to address the spate of fatal accidents caused by malfunctioning trucks. The National M3 highway snakes around sacred Mt Mdzimba whose caves are used to bury Swazi monarchs.