Mozambique received nine cruise ships in nine months with almost 4,500 tourists on board
The unprecedented ordeal of people travelling to South Africa from Mozambique
3:47 CAT | 06 Jan 2021
Photo: O País
To say that it remains difficult to cross the border from Ressano Garcia to South Africa may sound as an understatement . It is in fact a euphemism [ when a polite expression is used in place of a harsher or more objective one]. With a 15 km tailback on the EN4 again this Tuesday, it seemed pretty much impossible to be able to as much as reach the Mozambican side of the border, let alone cross it to the Lebombo side.
Also read: No food, no water & unable to enter South Africa, travellers turn back at Mozambique border – EWN
The demand of a new negative Covid-19 no more than 72 hours old (against 14 days previously) and a change in operational hours on the South African side – attributed to the curfew in force there [which supposedly applies to personnel working on the ‘open’ South African borders.] – are cited as among the causes of the congestion.
But South Africa never announced any new restrictions on international travel, on the contrary.
““In terms of international travel, nothing has changed,” Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zumaat told a media briefing on December 29, cited by Times Live. “The 18 land borders which were partially operational will be fully operational and the 34 land borders which were closed remain closed, except for the Kosi Bay Port of Entry [Ponta do Ouro, Mozambique], which will reopen on January 1 2021.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday in Mozambique, aerial images portray the martyrdom that hundreds of motorists and passengers have faced since last Sunday, with kilometres of the EN4 packed with vehicle packed five deep on a two-lane highway.
Mozambican truck driver Momade Naji, trapped in the queue, told ‘O País’ that the scene was “a real mess”.
“As you can see, it’s chaos – we’re not moving either way. We’ve been here since Sunday. We left the depot around 9:00 or 10:00 am. When I arrived, the queue was organised – until the police team withdrew,” he said, between constant calls on his cell phone.
Naji added that drivers heading to South Africa had closed both lanes of the EN4, preventing cars leaving South Africa, as a way of putting pressure on the South African authorities to break the logjam.
The measure did not bring the hoped-for results, he admitted.
Thus the scene of people sleeping in their cars in intense heat witnessed by ‘O País’ early on Tuesday afternoon. Pregnant women overcome with impatience, anguish and despair, but with no option but to endure until the situation normalises.
Worst of all is the lack of information about what is happening on the South African side to create such long lines of vehicles.
Hours on end with the engines turned off, not moving, adrift on the sea of uncertainty. Luís Chissano, interviewed by ‘O País’ in a queue for water, said that he was not sure even on which day would he finally travel.
Amid the supposed inertia of the South African authorities to unblock what is causing this suffering for travellers, another problem arises: the lack of a practically everything required to support the queue of vehicles.
For those who set off to travel without even imagining that they would have to spend days on the road, there are no public toilets, nor even a water supply, with the border police barracks the only lifeline for those needing to quench their thirst.
Not just bottled water but also food is being sold at speculative prices to travellers who, with no alternative, are forced to buy in order simply to endure until it again becomes possible to travel.
Ana Nguenha, one of the travellers, had to pay 300 meticais for a few pieces of chicken and French fries, without chima or rice, leaving her flabbergasted.
Also read: Crowds of migrants swell at South Africa border posts
She did not know the reason for the congestion at the Ressano Garcia border, and the South African authorities are giving no hint as to what is at the origin of this ordeal, which has left thousands of workers late reporting for work.
The head of Personnel and Finance at the Delegation of Labour in South Africa, Isaura Muianga, said that “some miners have already started using the Namaacha route” to reach the country. “But the situation remains critical because there is a constraint – the Covid-19 testing.”
However, the National Migration Service (SENAMI) explains that, of the approximately 358,000 travellers expected in Mozambique for the 2020/2021 festive season, only 164,376 entered the country because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
SENAMI director general Arsénia Massinga said that South Africa has introduced obligatory Covid-19 testing even for truck drivers, who had previously entered and exited South Africa without having to take the test.
The rapid test can be done on the South African side of the border for 170 rand, and this reduces the waiting time, Massinga said. The Mozambican Ministries of Interior and of Health were working together to make rapid tests available on the Mozambican side of the border, too, he added.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a return to level 3 lockdown for South Africa during an address to the nation on December 28 2020. The lockdown will be revised on January 15 2021. However, no restrictions on international travel were announced.
IN FULL | Ramaphosa’s emotional plea to SA as infections soar
By Amandio Borges
Source: O País 7 TimesLIVE
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