Saboteurs destroy yet another tollgate – AIM

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Saboteurs destroy yet another tollgate – AIM

6:01 CAT | 31 Jan 2025

Photo: Carta

Saboteurs attacked and destroyed on Wednesday night the tollgate at Bela Vista, on National Highway 200, which connects Maputo to the tourist resort of Ponta do Ouro, and on to the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal.

Footage on the independent television station TV Successo shows that the destruction was virtually total. Nothing remains of the tollgate, but charred and twisted bits of metal.

From the reports, it seems that the arsonists were able to destroy the tollgate without any police intervention.

The Bela Vista tollgate was operated by the Mozambican state-owned company Revimo. This company used to run 16 tollgates in Maputo and Gaza provinces. Eight of them have now been destroyed.

So far, the tollgate at Katembe, on the approach to the suspension bridge over the Bay of Maputo, has been spared – but at a cost. Reporters on Thursday found that paying the toll has become voluntary.

Those motorists who understand that the tolls are necessary for road repairs pay up. Others do not, and when questioned by reporters often say that the tolls are too expensive. Yet the Katembe poll for light vehicles is 125 meticais (about two US dollars) with reductions for public transport and for frequent users.

Prior to the construction of the bridge, motorists could only cross the Bay using an unreliable ferry service, which charged fares for light vehicles that are higher than the current road tolls.

Some motorists had a more political approach saying they would not pay the tolls, on the orders of “our president”. This man is the former presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane, who claims that he won the 9 October presidential election. But even if he did win, the President does not have the right to fix road tolls!

Mondlane has made the non-payment of the tolls one of his main battle cries – but he has not suggested other ways of financing road repairs.

The battle over the tolls extends to the N4 motorway between Maputo and South Africa, operated by the South African company TRAC (Trans-Africa Concessions).

The N4 tollgate is located between the cities of Maputo and Matola. On Thursday morning rioters again blocked the payment of the tolls, prompting clashes with the police in which a child and a young man were injured. The rioters reacted by setting fire to the TRAC offices.
Eventually these tolls too became voluntary.

After weeks of silence, the ruling Frelimo Party has finally spoken up against the sabotage of the tollgates. At a meeting in Maputo on Wednesday, the Frelimo Political Commission urged members of the public to pay the tolls in order to contribute to improving the roads.

In a statement read by the party’s spokesperson, Ludmila Maguni, the Political Commission said the tollgates “are infrastructures that constitute a strategic factor in the plan to improve the roads, in order to facilitate the movement of people and goods”.

The tolls charged, Maguni said, “are intended for the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of access routes ensuring their durability, quality and sustainability”.

Perhaps such an appeal might have made a difference, if it had been made as soon as the tollgates started to go up in flames. Made now, it just sounds like a piece of political routine.

Source: AIM