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.