Road upgrade creates highway chaos in Swaziland

MBABANE – Highway traffic chaos began last week in Mbabane, and won’t let up for at least seven months. The eastern entrance and exit of Mbabane, formerly a four-lane divided highway, was cut to two lanes for construction of a by-pass road. An additional 30 minutes is required by road users entering and leaving the capital. There is no alternative route but a rocky road accessible only by 4x4 vehicles, but unusable by trucks. The halving of the highway is only half the problem. A series of traffic bumps was installed in a quarter-kilometre stretch of twisting and steep Malagwane Hill to reduce traffic flow to 40 kph by the construction site. However, the tarmac bumps were improperly built, and require all vehicles to come to a virtual halt to avoid vehicle damage. Truck and private vehicle accidents have been the order of the day. Government’s Ministry of Transportation and Public Works is unconcerned by the mess, and dismisses the situation as “temporary.” “Seven months is not ‘temporary,’ and we can expect the usual construction overruns. Welcome to the 19th Century. Ox-cart travel is faster,” said one trucker. The route is the only one available to road freight hauliers from Gauteng bringing industrial inputs and goods to the Matsapha Industrial Estate outside Manzini and the commercial hub of Manzini itself. “Can you imagine Maseru, Port Elizabeth, Nelspruit or a similar-sized city cut off like this? I urge all my colleagues in the roadfreight business to dust off their ‘Plan Bs,’” said the manager of one Matsapha trucking company. Non-peak time travel is one option, although the notorious improperlyconstructed speed bumps will still be present.