Service failures in South Africa have caused kilometres of queues of heavy trucks at the Komatipoort-Ressano Garcia border to enter Mozambique and are affecting several sectors of the economy, different sources told Lusa.
The South African authorities have announced interventions in the registration system at the main crossing between the two countries, 100 kilometres from Maputo and 450 from Johannesburg, which has led to stoppages several times in recent weeks.
Last weekend the situation was repeated: trucks and goods were unable to register, causing chaos and limiting the space for light vehicles to circulate.
In some shops in the Mozambican capital there has already been a lack of products on the shelves, normally imported from South Africa.
In terms of exports, the Maputo port company is one of those affected, because “it is receiving less and less cargo,” Marla Calado, director of operations, told Lusa.
The company receives an average of 750 trucks per day, mainly ore (ferrochrome), but since the start of the congestion a few weeks ago, the number of vehicles has fallen to around half.
“Customers are not getting their cargo into the port in time for their shipments, which is incurring very large logistics costs. Imagine there are trucks that take a week to be able to cross the border,” noted Marla Calado.
The congestion can extend for more than five kilometres, with heavy vehicles sometimes occupying two lanes of the road, making traffic difficult for light vehicles as well.
“We were in South Africa to understand what was going on,” but for now with no answers, Juca Bata, spokesman for the National Migration Service in Maputo province, told Lusa.
“On the way back, we had to wait four hours to cross the border,” he added.
According to the source, the waiting time in queues leaves motorists exposed to insecurity and robberies.
“We have been receiving reports of robberies during their time at the border. We are talking about trucks full of various goods and light tourist cars,” said Juca Bata, promising to bring the issue to the table at the next meeting with the South African authorities.
