Groblersbrug Border Post (GRB) this morning remained closed after rising water levels from the Limpopo flooded into the crossing’s control zone.
This comes as the transit into Botswana north of Lephalale on the N11 was closed at 4pm yesterday after the river breached its banks on the South African side.
Photographs seen by the Transit Assistance Bureau (Transist) show flood water in a fenced-off section of Groblersbrug.
This morning a Transist member reported that GRB was still closed.
“But the water is receding and port management have a meeting on the way forward.”
The same source, who works as a clearing agent in Limpopo Province, said this morning that Skilpadshek Border Post on the Platinum N4 Highway east of Zeerust would accept trucks with cargo documentation for GRB.
The Limpopo is also carefully monitored at the Beitbridge Border Post that South Africa shares with Zimbabwe.
At its highest level in years, the river has thankfully dropped somewhat, but with more rain predicted for South Africa’s north-western interior, fears are that it could push even higher than the dangerous levels it has already reached.
Meanwhile, Transist has also informed its members that the rising levels of the Zambezi mean only one pontoon is operating at the Kazungula border crossing between Botswana and Namibia.
The ferry transit, where transporters eagerly await the opening of a recently completed multimodal bridge, usually has three pontoons assisting truck drivers with crossing the treacherous river.
However, with only one in use as the Zambezi swells to record levels, the queue of trucks waiting to cross is backing up north and south of the river.
This morning Transist posted a video sent by a trucker showing a line of trucks stretching for kilometres through dense bush on the Zambia side.
News of the backup comes with mere weeks to spare before Zambia enforces a ruling that will prevent road hauliers from using its Vic Falls-Livingstone border post in and out of Zimbabwe, a preferred transit point by long-haul drivers who fear the Kazungula ferry where two trucks slipped off pontoons in under two weeks towards the end of last year (*)
(*) Read related story here: tinyurl.com/yewtebcn
WATCH: The Limpopo in flood, passing underneath one of the bridges across the river separating South Africa from Zimbabwe.
