Swazis resist government's toll road efforts

JAMES HALL
MBABANE – Swaziland’s government had hoped to lessen its road maintenance bill by turning the expanding main east-west highway into a toll road as early as this year. But anticipated public resistance to paying may put the plan on indefinite hold, Ministry of Public Works sources said.
Twice in recent months motorists blocked local initiatives to make road users foot road infrastructure maintenance costs. A new bus rank in Manzini was rejected by public transport owners and users who felt it was too far from the city centre. Another plan by Manzini, Swaziland’s most populous urban centre that is known as the road hub of the nation, to introduce street parking fees for the first time in the country proved a non-starter last month when car and truck owners simply refused to pay.
Government sources said road freight and civilian road users accustomed to travelling for free on the national highway from the Oshoek Border, the gateway from Swaziland to Gauteng, to Manzini will likely resist toll payments. The highway has been introduced in stages since 1998 as new sections are completed. A public education campaign on toll payments will be required. Meanwhile, the general taxpayer will foot maintenance costs.
Plans to make the highway a toll way are stalled anyway by delays in a bypass road around Mbabane. Construction continues to dawdle along as the price has escalated three-fold – now estimated to exceeded
R1 billion for a seven-kilometre stretch of road.