Mozambique: Toll collection resumes without incidents, despite some queuing and honking

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Mozambique: Toll collection resumes without incidents, despite some queuing and honking

1:56 CAT | 15 May 2025

Photo: Lusa

Tolls were today being collected again on several Mozambican roads after months of suspension following post-election protests – and without incident, despite some honking and queues, at least in Maputo.

This was the scene experienced from the early hours at the Costa do Sol toll booths, at the entrance to Maputo, with some drivers surprised by the resumption of payment, honking as the queues to pay and access the capital grew longer. Others claimed they had no money and turned back, upset.

Despite the police reinforcement, at the time of writing there were no known incidents involving the resumption of toll payments, which have not been widespread. For example the toll booths in Cumbeza, on the outskirts of Maputo, still completely vandalized following the protests that followed the general elections on October 9, remain closed today,

The Mozambican government announced on May 6 that more than half of the country’s toll booths had, until then, suspended collections following the demonstrations, and announced that payment would resume as of today, with discounts of up to 60%.

“Of a total of 41 toll booths in the country, 25 have suspended operations, as a result of the vandalism that consisted of the destruction of offices, sabotage of barriers and collection systems, among other damages. Even those that are open are operating under [limiting] conditions, with some drivers persisting in causing disorder in order to continue to pass through without paying the due fees,” a Ministry of Transport and Logistics statement reads.

It also stated that the government has been implementing “extraordinary measures with immediate impact” to “relieve the cost of living and promote economic recovery, following violent demonstrations”, and, in the area of roads, decided to review toll rates downwards, “with a special focus on public transport for passengers and residents in areas close to tolls”.

The reduction in tariffs, it argued, will “relieve the operating costs of providers of public passenger transport services, in the urban and interprovincial segment, as well as relieve the burden on citizens who regularly use tolls”.

Highlighting that the payment of tolls “constitutes a complement to public funding for the rehabilitation and maintenance of roads, materializing (…) the user-pays principle”, the ministry stressed that these revenues “represent around 20% of the internal sources of financing for roads in the country”.

Among other charges, the toll on the bridge between Maputo and Catembe, for Class 1 vehicles, will increase from 125 meticais (€1.70) to 100 meticais (€1.40), and the toll in Maputo will increase to five meticais (€0.07), compared to the previous 15 meticais (€0.21), for semi-public passenger transport, precisely two of the points of greatest conflict and contestation in recent months.

Revimo, responsible for the construction, maintenance and operation of several roads in the country, had already announced on 25 January that it would resume charging toll fees, an announcement that sparked new popular revolt, with roadblocks and vandalism at several points.

Since October, Mozambique has been experiencing a climate of strong social unrest, with demonstrations and strikes called by former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who rejects the election results of 9 October, which gave victory to Daniel Chapo.

Since October 21, the start of these protests, around 400 people have died, including two dozen minors, according to Plataforma Decide, a Mozambican non-governmental organization that monitors the electoral process.

On March 23, Venâncio Mondlane, the presidential candidate who does not recognize the announced results of the general elections of October 9, 2024 and who called for post-election protests, and Daniel Chapo, the President who took office in January, met for the first time and a commitment was made to end the violence in the country.

Source: Lusa