Mozambique: Some Katembe residents petition for lower bridge tolls – Watch

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Mozambique: Some Katembe residents petition for lower bridge tolls – Watch

8:08 CAT | 16 Mar 2022

Screen grab: TVM

Some residents of the Maputo municipal district of Katembe on Tuesday submitted a petition to the company Revimo (Road Network of Mozambique) calling for a reduction in the tolls charged to use the suspension bridge across the Bay of Maputo.

The bridge links Katembe to central Maputo, and is operated by Revimo. The tolls, unchanged since the bridge was inaugurated in November 2018, range from 160 meticais (about 2.5 US dollars at the current exchange rate) for light vehicles and motorcycles to 1,200 meticais for heavy trucks.

But, according to Efraim Tembe, the spokesperson of the Katembe District Residents’ Commission, these tolls are far too high.

“The current tolls, particularly those for light vehicles, are excessive, unbearable, and prohibitive for pockets that are already suffocated”, he told AIM. He also claimed that the tolls violate “the constitutional right to the free circulation of people and goods” (though there is no clause in the constitution forbidding tolls on roads and bridges).

Tembe said the residents want Revimo to charge the same toll on the bridge that it is charging on the various toll gates erected on the Maputo Ring Road – which is 40 meticais for a light vehicle. A cheaper toll, he claimed, would help drive the social and economic development of Katembe district.

“The building of a bridge over the Bay of Maputo was always seen as the solution for so many longstanding problems of Katembe, which have undermined the district’s development for years”, said Tembe. “But with the current tolls, the dream of a better life with the Maputo-Katembe bridge has collapsed”.

But how did Tembe and the other members of the Residents’ Commission travel between Maputo and Katembe before the bridge existed?

There used to be an obsolete and unreliable ferry, and queues of vehicles would build up on both sides of the Bay. And the ferry was not cheap – Efraim Tembe seems to have forgotten that a ticket on the ferry cost more than the tolls on the bridge.

In late 2018, the charges for using the ferry were 250 meticais for a light vehicle, weighing up to a tonne, on weekdays and 300 meticais at weekends. Cargo and passenger vehicles with a gross weight of up to 3.5 tonnes paid 400 and 450 meticais. Heavier vehicles paid up to 1,100 meticais. For motorbikes the charges were 35 meticais on weekdays and 40 meticais at weekends.

In other words, the bridge has reduced travel costs for car owning Katembe residents, not to mention the huge savings in time and comfort from using a bridge rather than a ferry.

The Chairperson of the Revimo Board of Directors, Angelo Lichanga, told AIM it is the responsibility of the government to decide on any changes to the tolls. Nonetheless, he said Revimo “is working to accommodate the demands of the residents. We have teams on the ground working with the communities, and shortly we shall communicate the results achieved at the negotiations”.

Watch the TVM report.