Swazi protester fights toll proposals with a knobkerrie

Road freight transporters moving cargo into and out of Swaziland may not go to the extremes of a 79 year-old man who was so disgruntled with Ministry of Transport policies last week that he attacked transport minister Nthutuko Dlamini with a knobkerrie. (He missed and was not arrested.) But for the first time in Swaziland history a large-scale public protest against highway construction is under way, in which the interests of commercial freight hauliers and civilian road users are converging. Dlamini reacted angrily when presented with a petition from the business community and residents of Ezulwini east of Mbabane to the location of a toll plaza there en route to the Matsapha Industrial Estate. At issue are safety concerns – the plaza is to be sited at a high-accident location – but the real worry is affordability for road users in a severely impoverished country. Road freight firms working on razor-thin margins tell FTW they are concerned about the added cost of doing business when toll fees are factored in. Even Swaziland’s local traditional authorities are objecting. Transport Minister Dlamini was also fined and had to pay two cows to a band of Swazi elders at Ezulwini when his ministry’s workers entered communal Swazi Nation Land without permission to place surveying pegs in anticipation of future construction. Dlamini told a meeting of transporters last week that the decision to go forward with the conversion of the highway from Oshoek border post to Matsapha has been made by the country’s highest authorities, and his hands are tied. What also concerns road freight transporters is the fact that there is no alternate route from the east into the mountaintop capital city.