The road to South Africa’s main border with Mozambique, a key export route for coal and chrome, was closed after clashes broke out between truck drivers and minibus taxi operators who crammed traffic near the border stretches partially over Miles.
Truck drivers allegedly set fire to taxi patrol vehicles, said Moeti Mmusi, spokesman for the Mpumalanga Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison. Marshals have been trying since June to maintain order at the Lebombo highway crossing, which is often completely clogged and drivers are stranded for days waiting to enter Mozambique from South Africa’s Mpumalanga province.
The clash between the truck drivers and taxi guards follows months of tension between the groups. The truck drivers are “fed up” with the marshals, said Bertus Koekemoer, head of the community police forum in the border town of Komatipoort, by telephone on Friday.
“This is really serious,” he said. “It’s starting to get chaotic.”
Declination in trade
According to TracN4, the company that holds the concession to operate the road, the N4 motorway is closed between the border and an intersection about 2.5 kilometers west of it.
The decline in volumes transported across South Africa’s rail network in recent years has led to mining companies increasingly relying on exports by road, with thousands of additional trucks burdening the highways.
The port of Maputo in Mozambique has become a major export terminal, and the border crossing between the two countries has struggled to keep up with the increase in truck traffic.
