Mozambique: Rebellion in north 'in decline' but risks not eliminated - analysts
File photo: Notícias
The Mozambican Minister of Public Works, Joao Machatine, announced on Friday that the suspension bridge over the Bay of Maputo, linking the centre of the city to the outlying municipal district of Katembe will be inaugurated on 10 November.
The date is the anniversary of Maputo’s elevation to the status of a city. The opening of the bridge is almost a year behind schedule. The delay is due mainly to the refusal of stallholders at an informal market blocking the northern access to the bridge to move without compensation.
Machatine announced the opening date at the end of a meeting of the Coordinating Council of his Ministry held at Chidinguele, in the southern province of Gaza.
The bridge will not merely make it easier for Maputo residents to cross the Bay, freeing them from reliance on an unreliable ferry service. It will also shorten the time taken to drive between Maputo and the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal.
As part of the same project, the roads south of Katembe to the tourist resort of Ponta de Ouro and the South African border have been upgraded. There should be four toll gates on the road, but Machatine, cited by the independent television station, STV, said that only two are ready – at the bridge itself, and at the town of Bela Vista.
The tolls charged for using the bridge have not yet been announced, but Maputo-Sul, the state company operating the bridge, says they will be cheaper than the ferry, and will be “socially bearable”.
Machatine also blamed overloading of trucks for the deterioration in the quality of Mozambican roads. He accused truck drivers of avoiding weighbridges, and promised that his Ministry is working with the police to catch overloaded trucks which were having “an incalculable impact on our roads”.
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