Mozambique: Business group warns of economic hit from South Africa truck attacks

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Mozambique: Business group warns of economic hit from South Africa truck attacks

10:28 CAT | 14 Jul 2023

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: TRwitter / @ECR_Newswatch]

The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA) on Thursday warned of losses caused to the nation’s economy by the wave of attacks on heavy goods trucks in South Africa, calling for security to be stepped up on the highways in the latter country.

“The economy will go backwards, because people are afraid to invest, to put their trucks on the street,” Flávio Naiene, vice-president of CTA for freight transport, told Lusa. “This will bring many problems, both for transport operators and for commerce.”

At least 21 trucks have been burned in armed violence in three provinces of South Africa since last Saturday, the country’s police minister, Bheki Cele, announced on Wednesday.

Many other road hauliers have parked their goods vehicles due to the violence on South Africa’s roads, said Naiene.

“I in particular have my lorries parked because I am afraid to go to South Africa,” he said. “I gave my drivers jobs, not to hand them over to their families in a coffin.”

South Africa is the main source of supply of essential goods in the southern and central regions of Mozambique and with the violence against transporters “prices will skyrocket,” added Naiene.

The entrepreneur said that a truck with licence plates from Mozambique was incinerated on Tuesday night, in just the latest attack on heavy goods vehicles on South Africa’s roads.

“A colleague of ours lost his lorry” when it was “burnt with goods” on Tuesday, he recalled.

But other hauliers from Mozambique may have been affected, without being accounted for, because their trucks have South African licence plates, Naiene noted.

He pointed out that insecurity on the highways linking South Africa and Mozambique will force hauliers to miss debt payments to banks because they are not able to see a return from their vehicles.

“I think [the perpetrators of the truck fires] want to send a message to [South Africa’s] government or both governments, because their intention is not to steal,” said the CTA’s vice-president for freight transport.

Naiene cited the existence of a video in which unknown individuals set fire to a heavy goods vehicle, after forcing the driver to get out, yet without taking any goods.

He argued that the authorities in Mozambique should persuade their counterparts in South Africa to step up security at the “most critical points” on roads, placing more police and surveillance equipment.

He lamented the fact that users of the highways linking Mozambique and South Africa have to pay tolls on such roads, yet have to travel in an environment of insecurity.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Cele, the South African minister, said that police were investigating the incidents, and had identified at least 12 people as being responsible for the armed attacks on heavy goods vehicles.

The provinces affected are Gauteng, where Johannesburg is located, and Pretoria, the country’s capital, as well as KwaZulu-Natal, in the south-east, and Mpumalanga and Limpopo in the north. The latter three provinces border Mozambique.