James Hall MBABANE - A general deterioration of the road system is being partly blamed on road freight hauliers who cheat on load weights, and an imminent solution will be weighbridges attached initially to key border posts, and eventually to all border posts, the Ministry of Transportation said. “A proposal for new weighbridges has been necessitated by the rapid damage to our road infrastructure, whereas data collection (at Swaziland’s only weighbridge) reflects low haulage,” said Gugu Hlanze, an official with the transport ministry. Nine years after construction, the weighbridge adjacent to the Matsapha Industrial Estate was opened this year. Its location was chosen because much road freight originates or terminates at Matsapha, and the location is equidistant to the capital Mbabane and the commercial hub Manzini. Immediately, however, truckers found ways around the weighbridge. Data from the facility suggests hauliers are loading up after weighing, as calculated by wear and tear on the highway system attributed to overloaded trucks. The ministry gave no timetable when the border post weighbridges would be opened.
