James Hall MBABANE - Road freight operators stand to benefit from an upgrade of all Swaziland’s border posts, which will be accomplished with tourism in mind. “Our border post facilities need to be more efficient and more user friendly, to cut down on time anyone going into the country or out needs to spend there,” said Poppy Khoza, director of the Swaziland Tourism Promotional Authority and wife of the deputy prime minister, at the authority’s launch last week. King Mswati presided over the launch. As per Swazi custom, the king is notified of needed developmental initiatives at such occasions, and he gives his blessing to them. The appropriate ministries, in this case the customs authorities and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, then get to work. In addition to the physical rehabilitation of border posts, longer operating hours are envisioned for the key Oshoek Border post in the west that services most traffic to and from Gauteng, the southern Lavumisa border post used by road freight traffic to Durban, and the northern Mananga border post offering access to Nelspruit and used by the main sugar cane and citrus plantations.
