Law enforcers at South Africa’s Lebombo Border Post have been accused of turning a blind eye to corrupt practices at the routinely congested crossing into Mozambique, when they themselves are not involved in accepting bribes from truck drivers jumping the tipper truck queue on the N4.
So bad is the lawlessness at the transit that the T-junction of the R571 close to the border gate “is practically a toll road”, a transporter said this morning.
The source, who asked not to be named, said the exchange of money between traffic officers and some drivers had become entrenched, and although senior executives from the SA Police Service (Saps) were aware of what was happening, no one had been arrested.
The transporter from Komatipoort said a security group, which was started to assist with long-standing issues of crime at the border, had at least two members who were senior executives within Saps – major general Duncan Scott, who is the head of border policing, and a close associate, lieutenant colonel Boitumelo Ramahlaha.
He said Scott was aware of what was happening and that Ramahlaha had promised that arrests would be made.
“But nothing has happened. We go to the intersection of Mananga Road (R571) with a video camera and see traffic police pulling trucks off the road they shouldn’t be using. As soon as we leave, we receive information that drivers are paying bribes for continuing towards the border, rejoining the N4 in front of the rest of the queue.”
In the meantime, other practices Saps has threatened to act against, such as traffic officials letting down the wheels of trucks belonging to drivers accused of exacerbating congestion through bad driver behaviour, continue unabated.
“They don’t care,” the transporter said.
“Truck drivers are intimidated in full view of police officers and nothing happens. It’s complete lawlessness, and when it’s pointed out to people like Ramahlaha, he undertakes to take action but does nothing about it.
“At a recent community meeting, he said: ‘You are all adults and must sort it out.’”
In the meantime, the ore truck queue backs up for kilometres on the N4 past turn-offs like the Tenbosch Road to the north, regularly used by drivers to bypass the blocked-up highway by heading through Komatipoort, systematically destroying the once quiet town’s main road of Rissik Street.
But it’s the Mananga Road in particular that complying transporters would like to see effectively policed instead of being used as a free-for-all by queue-skipping truck drivers and bribe-taking law enforcers.
Another source said the volume of ore transported through the border had actually been significantly reduced, especially since the price of magnetite had dropped below acceptable levels for Phalaborwa Mining Company.
“It took about 400 to 500 trucks out of what we have seen at the border, and until about three months ago, traffic volumes were down. But now we have this congestion again and the people responsible for safety and security are not doing their job.”
He said a principal reason for the congestion at the border was traffic control measures in Ressano Garcia on Mozambique’s side of the border. Discussions with the relevant authorities to improve traffic flow through the border were under way, the source said.
- The Saps was approached for comment but had not responded by the time this post was ready to be uploaded.
