Swazi king secures Arab funding for road upgrades

No wonder two of King Mswati’s eldest sons returned from a royal tour of the Middle East recently wearing flowing Arabian robes and matching headdresses. Their father had used the trip to secure multi million dollar commitments to expand Swaziland’s highway infrastructure. It's positive news for SA roadfreight because the highways earmarked for development will reduce distance and travel time between Gauteng and Maputo by making Swaziland an alternative to the Nelspruit and Komatipoort route. Although the Swaziland foreign ministry tells FTW that technically the amount of US $312m is a “proposal” from the king to the Kuwaiti Fund for Economic Development, sources there also confide that a special relationship between the Swazi and Kuwaiti kings should expedite funding approval. King Mswati was in Kuwait promoting such projects as the MR3 highway to connect the central commercial hub Manzini with the Lomahasha border post to Mozambique. 100 km of dual carriage highway is planned from the Matsapha Industrial Estate outside Manzini, where Swazi manufacturing and road transport firms are concentrated. The highway would connect with the country’s new international airport under construction at Sikhupe. King Mswati said at a press conference on his return from Kuwait that the airport could be operational as early as March 2010. He said Middle Eastern air carriers were considering using the facility. However, use of the airport would be cumbersome for airfreight shippers until a highway is built to replace to current 35 year-old two-lane road that runs east from Manzini to Mozambique. 24/7 Moz/Swazi border operations began earlier this year and are expected to commence at the SA/Swazi border post at Oshoek at holiday time at year’s end. This will enable Gauteng to Maputo shippers round-theclock movement between countries via Swaziland.