Road traffic on N4 between South Africa and Mozambique resumed on Friday afternoon – TRAC

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Road traffic on N4 between South Africa and Mozambique resumed on Friday afternoon – TRAC

2:58 CAT | 15 May 2023

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

Road traffic on the N4 highway between Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, and Maputo resumed on Friday afternoon after violent protests, a source at the South African concessionaire has said.

“The protests took place in the Witbank [now eMalahleni] area, far from the border [with Mozambique],” Solange Soares, spokesperson for Trans African Concessions (TRAC), the N4 concessionaire, told Lusa on Friday. “They started on Tuesday, but today (Friday, 12-05) there were no protests, so we cleared the road – because there was a lot of damage after four days of protests – and the road is now open.”

“Anyone coming from Mozambique to Witbank will not experience any problem,” she advised, adding that the concessionaire was assessing the damage caused by the protests, allegedly against the provincial government of Mpumalanga.

Violent protests by local communities, who set fire to vehicles, began last Tuesday as a result of lack of water and electricity for five consecutive days, with the N4 being affected in the eMalahleni area, about 320 kilometres from the border with Mozambique, Soares told Lusa.

READ: Mozambique: Citizens advised to avoid travelling to South Africa using the N4 road

The N4 highway connects Pretoria to the port of Maputo in the Mozambican capital, a distance of 570 kilometres, and is also an essential link between South Africa and other neighbouring countries such as Eswatini and Botswana.

#TRACN4route 12/05 at 09:21 #ROAD REMAINS CLOSED due to Protest actions btw Balmoral IC + Walter Sisulu IC # eMalahleni. Please use alternative routes.

— TRAC N4 Toll Route (@TRACN4route) May 12, 2023