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South Africa Closes Border With Mozambique Due To Violent Protests

South Africa Closes Border With Mozambique Due To Violent Protests

The South African government has announced the closure of the main border with Mozambique, calling on businesses to temporarily suspend the transport of goods through the Lebombo border post.

South Africa’s transport minister, Barbara Creecy, called on companies involved in mining to delay the departure of trucks from the mines, warning that the queues at the border are already 20 kilometres long.

‘Please delay the lorries at your mines. The queues of trucks on the South African side of the border with Mozambique are already 20 kilometres long. The situation of the [lorry] drivers is inhuman, there are no sanitary facilities along the road, no water, no food,’ he stressed.

She stressed that the Mozambican authorities had opened the Ressano Garcia border post to allow empty trucks and passenger vehicles to cross into South Africa, but no cargo vehicles have crossed from the South African side since Sunday morning, 8 December.

‘The Department of Transport, in liaison with the Cross-Border Road Transport Agency (C-BRTA) and police forces, are working together to manage this terrible situation,’ he said.

The main border between South Africa and Mozambique, located in Komatipoort, Mpumalanga province, has faced several disruptions over the last two months due to the post-election protests taking place in the country, called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane.

South Africa’s Road Transport Association (RFA) estimated the loss to South African operators at around 5 billion rand (17.6 billion meticals), due to delays in the movement of cargo through the Port of Maputo, as a result of the first post-election demonstrations last November.

Mozambique is facing several popular protests after the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), in power since 1975, won the general elections on 9 October, according to the National Electoral Commission (CNE).

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