Mozambique: Ring Road toll gates open as injunction overruled – Watch

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Mozambique: Ring Road toll gates open as injunction overruled – Watch

5:51 CAT | 01 Feb 2022

Photo: TVM

The four toll gates on the Maputo Ring Road opened on Tuesday, and began to collect the tolls from the users of the road, despite the injunction obtained last week by the Centre for Development and Democracy (CDD), a civil society body which has been spearheading a campaign against the tolls.

The CDD injunction led the Administrative Tribunal (TA), which is the supreme audit authority in Mozambique, to suspend temporarily the government dispatch which fixes the tolls.

But on Monday the government appealed successfully against the injunction. The government document, signed by Public Works Minister Joao Machatine and Finance Minister Adriano Maleiane, argued it was a matter of “public interest” that the tolls should be collected as from Tuesday.

The Tribunal agreed and allowed the government to press ahead with collecting the tolls, as an “exception” to the normal procedures followed when dealing with injunctions. In this case. The TA, which has a reputation for lethargy, reacted with remarkable speed.

The government’s critics on social media protested that the government did not define what it meant by “public interest”. But in the context of the dispute over the tolls, it is clear that the government believes the collection of tolls is crucial in order to avoid a sharp deterioration in the quality of the road.

The Ring Road was always intended as a toll road. Yet as sections were opened over the past four years, motorists paid nothing to use the road. Allowing this situation to continue risks allowing the road to fall into premature disrepair.

The toll gates are located at Costa do Sol, Zintava, Cumbeza and Matola-Gare. The toll at each gate is 40 meticais for light vehicles, minibuses and motorcycles. The toll for vans and buses is 140 meticais, and for heavier vehicles, with three or four axles, it is 380 meticais. Heavy goods vehicles, with five or more axles, will pay 580 meticais every time they use the Ring Road.

Passenger transport vehicles enjoy a discount of 75 per cent. Thus the toll for a bus is 35 rather than 140 meticais. The minibuses (known as “chapas”) that provide much of Greater Maputo’s passenger transport will pay ten meticais instead of 40.

Light vehicles which use the Ring Road frequently will receive a discount. The discount for vehicles which make between 11 and 20 journeys along the road in a month is seven per cent, rising to 60 per cent for any light vehicle which makes more than 60 journeys in a month.

Watch the TVM report.