Truck congestion hits Swazi border

MBABANE – SA’s Oshoek border, the main entry point to Swaziland, has resembled such notoriously congested border crossings as Beitbridge and Zambia/ DRC for most of this past week, with queues of trucks reportedly numbering more than 100 vehicles. When contacted by FTW, Swaziland’s customs authorities were investigating the congestion, the likes of which they say they have never before seen. “Our people say the problem is in South Africa, and when I called South Africa they said the problem was on our side,” Dumisani Masilela, Commissioner General for the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA), told FTW. Masilela, who heads a new agency that combines Swaziland’s former Department of Income Tax and Department of Customs and Excise, said he had been receiving calls about trucks stuck at the border for days and went on an inspection of Oshoek last Thursday. Although there seems some confusion over a change in operating procedures instituted by Sars at the Oshoek border, at the heart of the matter is a simple and perennial problem on the Swazi side – limited parking for trucks. FTW has learned that Swaziland-bound drivers clear SA customs and then walk across to the Swazi side for customs clearance there, leaving their vehicles in SA. The practice has been going on for years, but this past week SA border authorities said enough was enough, and insisted the truckers drive through after finishing with Sars. The subsequent queues have resulted from the shortage of parking slots for large rig trucks. Stores awaiting stock and factories requiring “just in time” deliveries of inputs were most affected. However, some overnight courier services with smaller vehicles are able to find space at the passenger car parking bay outside the Swazi border post office, although this area is also small and congested. Border authorities say they are working on a compromise, but a long-term solution will only materialise with the expansion of truck parking on the Swazi side.