Clearing the roadblocks to peace

Good afternoon. Today’s meeting between Mozambican and South African officials (see below) was officially announced by the South African government as aimed at “engaging on the challenges in Mozambique”. However, the composition of the South African delegation, which was led by foreign minister Ronald Lamola and includes officials from the Border Management Authority, South African Revenue Service and transport sector, together with the planned visit to the South African border post at Lebombo this afternoon, suggests that there was one challenge in particular on the agenda: the constant closure of the main border crossing between the two countries recently, and the impact it has had on South African road freight companies trying to get their goods across the border and to the port of Maputo.

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It is fair to say that South African authorities and businesses are very unhappy about this disruption, which the Road Freight Association (RFA) has claimed has been costing the South African economy 10m rand ($554,000) a day. Access to the port of Maputo is vital for South Africa’s chromium and coal mining industries, and over 2,000 heavy goods lorries a day regularly pass through the Mozambican side of the crossing at Ressano Garcia. But during the recent demonstrations called by opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, the N4 highway crossing the border has been repeatedly closed to traffic, sometimes continuously for most of the day, and border infrastructure has been attacked. Only in the past week have Mozambican police cracked down on protesters closing the road in an effort to get traffic moving again. Some South African lorries have also been set on fire by protesters, and Mondlane’s call for no taxes or tolls to be charged has made it more difficult for customs authorities to do their jobs.