Mozambique promises to comply on Swazi border deal

James Hall
MBABANE Ð Responding to Swaziland parliament's freeze of nearly R250 000
to open and operate a
new R1,5 million border post facility at Mhlumeni because Mozambique has not fulfilled its agreement to rehabilitate its side of the border, Mozambican High Commissioner to Swaziland Zacarias Kupela has promised his country will finish the work in
six months.
"The governments of South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland agreed on the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative, and the Mhlumeni border post was chosen as the main link point between Swaziland and Mozambique in the initiative to facilitate goods and civilian traffic between all three countries," Kupela said at a tour of Mhlumeni this week.
Swazi finance minister Majozi Sithole had told MPs to delay the border
post funds because of Mozambique's non-compliance. Freight haulage firms were looking forward to an alternate and in some cases more expeditious route for Swazi exports to the port of Maputo.
MPs are worried that export industries will suffer without the border facility, and the project will become a white elephant if Mozambique does not live up to its part of the deal.
Mhlumeni was closed for security reasons during the Mozambique civil war and post-war lawlessness that made road deliveries vulnerable to attacks by bandits.
Kupela said the reopening of Mhlumeni would reduce the traffic of stolen vehicles originating in South Africa and passing through Swaziland
en route to Mozambique
and Zambia.
A delegation of Swazi business people toured the facility with Kupela, who after listening to their recommendation that visa requirements be dropped for SADC nationals seeking entry into Mozambique, replied that the matter was under consideration in Maputo.