Mozambique: Carriers take longer, ‘much more expensive’ route to Durban for fear of attacks

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Mozambique: Carriers take longer, ‘much more expensive’ route to Durban for fear of attacks

6:59 CAT | 05 May 2023

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

Road carriers from Mozambique plying the Maputo-Durban route continue to use a “much more expensive” alternative route to the main one to reach their destination, three months after attacks on vehicles from the country in South Africa, the main sector association told Lusa on Thursday.

“We continue to use Eswatini [formerly Swaziland] as an alternative route to reach Durban, but it is not an efficient route,” Frederico Lopes, president of the Mozambique, South Africa and Associates group told Lusa. “We are suffering with the operational costs.”

At issue are attacks that took place over the last two months in which at least 14 vehicles from Mozambique, including civilian ones, were burnt by assailants on the R22 road, between Hluhluwe and Mbazwana, in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal.

The stretch is about 90 kilometres from the border between the two countries and is part of a route used by several road hauliers between Maputo and Durban.

According to Lopes, the alternative route is much more costly and bureaucratic, requiring vehicles from Mozambique to travel n extra 123 kilometres to reach Durban.

“Those who are using the shorter route, from Ponta do Ouro, are the South African hauliers Which is, in a way, unfair. The customers end up choosing to use South African vehicles and we, who are already suffering losses, are left in an even more difficult situation,” pointed out Frederico Lopes.

As well as travelling 123 kilometres more through Eswatini, the road carrierrs from Mozambique also face extra bureaucracy, given that they are forced to cross two international frontiers.

“Our passports have to be stamped in Mozambique, Eswatini and South Africa,” said Lopes, alluding to the procedures for entry and exit between the three countries, including some fees payable at the borders. “The people we take are normally traders and for them to be enduring the three borders is a bit complicated.”

The attacks, which took place mainly in February, came after local communities in KwaZulu-Natal complained of several instances of thefts of vehicles subsequently allegedly smuggled into Mozambique – crimes that they say have gone unpunished.

Due to its relative economic stability regional level, and the strength of its currency, South Africa is one of the countries that receives the most immigrants from several parts of Africa, above all from neighbouring states such as Mozambique.

South Africa, the largest economy in the region, hosts more than 2 million Mozambique nationals working in mines, agricultural fields and informal trade, according to the latest figures advanced by the authorities.

Source: Lusa