Mozambique: Public Works Minister defends toll gates

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Mozambique: Public Works Minister defends toll gates

8:16 CAT | 23 Apr 2021

in file CoM

Mozambique’s Minister of Public Works, Joao Machatine, has vigorously defended the government’s plan to lease out major roads to private operators, who will collect money for maintenance through toll gates.

Speaking in the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday during a question and answer session between the government and the deputies, Machatine pointed out that roads “make a vital contribution to the economic and social development of the country” – but only if they are properly maintained.

“Inadequate maintenance of roads shortens their useful life and results in high operational costs for companies and for citizens”, he said. “If the country does not invest seriously in road maintenance, it will lose the investments made and will spend large sums of money in rehabilitating those same roads”.

Maintenance was not a responsibility that should be left solely in the hands of the State. “The age of the roads, the increase in traffic, the growth in the road network, and the effects of climate change, mean that large amounts of money are required for maintenance, and in no part of the world does this come exclusively from the state budget”, said Machatine.

Instead, road users must share in the maintenance costs. Toll gates were “a regular and stable source of finance for maintaining roads”, he added. Such a system would also allow cross-subsidies, so that roads with high maintenance costs are subsidized by those with lower costs.

Deputies from the main opposition party, Renamo, echoing the motoring lobby, had complained about the installation of toll gates – although to date the motoring lobby has been so successful that there are still very few toll gates in Mozambique –something that the present government intends to change.

Toll gates are common across the globe, including in other southern African countries, Machatine said, pointing out that the SADC (Southern African Development Community) transport protocol, ratified by Mozambique in 1998, states that member states should develop policies whereby the users contribute to road maintenance.

“Countries where the users do participate in maintenance have road networks that are in a good state of conservation, and that is not true of countries where the users do not participate”, said the Minister.

Asked about the emergency public works programme launched last year to ensure that schools and other educational establishments have the decent water supply and sanitation facilities that are crucial for fighting against the Covid-19 pandemic, Machatine said that, in the first phase, the government set out to rehabilitate toilets in 294 schools. To date 95 per cent of that work was complete.

80 new school water supply systems ae being built, and that task is 75 per cent done. New buildings for bathrooms are required in 277 schools, and Machatine said 65 per cent of this component is complete.

Source: AIM