Hungry and tired, Jose Motolo had by yesterday been stuck at the Lebombo border post for five days, with nothing but a truckload of empty beer bottles for company.
The 55-year-old Mozambican truck driver arrived at the border on Tuesday. “This was a very tough week,” he said. “I have been sitting here waiting to be allowed across since Tuesday, That means no bath or shower and eating mostly only bread because that is all I can afford.”
On Friday his luck started changing. “The Red Cross came to bring us food — mince and rice. It was great to not eat only bread for a change.”
Motolo had delivered a load of explosives to Secunda on Sunday. “I then picked up a load of empty beer bottles to take to Mozambique. That is the cargo sitting on my truck now.”
On Saturday, after the full reopening of the border after a week of violent protests sparked by the outcome of last month’s elections in Mozambique, officials on both sides were working hard to clear the backlog of trucks.
Gavin Kelly, CEO of the Road Freight Association, said the suspension of Port of Maputo operations and the halt to road freight transport in Mozambique was costing the South African economy an estimated R10m a day.
Clearing the backlog at the border was proving a challenging task, with the queue of trucks growing on Saturday due to many drivers who left earlier in the week returning with their cargo after hearing on Friday that the border had partially reopened. But by yesterday afternoon, as smiling drivers honked their horns with joy, a long line of trucks headed into Mozambique.
A senior Border Management Authority (BMA) official confirmed the crossing was now fully open.
On Friday, BMA commissioner Mike Masiapato told the Sunday Times: “The violent protests on our neighbour’s side spread to a Mozambican border post at a place they call Km4. At this post, computers were stolen.
“Fifteen Mozambican officials, fearing for their lives, fled to our side of the border. As a safety precaution we had to close the border temporarily until emotions calmed down.”
The post was reopened for a short while on Wednesday, before renewed violence forced it to close again.
On Friday Masiapato met Mozambican officials in no-man’s land. “They explained their challenges,” he said. “The main issue was the stolen computers. They were working as fast as they could to source replacement equipment. Until that is done, they cannot process commercial traffic or handle immigration.”
At 3pm on Friday, some foot traffic and empty trucks with South African registrations were allowed to leave Mozambique.
Truck drivers were not the only ones feeling the impact of the closure.
Jose dos Santos has owned the Lebombo Village Supermarket, at a filling station near the border, since 2005.
“This has been a terrible week for us. Our revenue is down by 90%. This is also the time we need to put in double orders with our suppliers for December because many of them are closed for the festive period. But to put in double orders you need capital and to get capital you need feet through the doors,” Dos Santos said on Friday.
“I have had to send two-thirds of my staff home. It's a massive problem when your overheads stay the same while the bottom falls out of your turnover.”
He said the situation is worrying on a wider scale. “Our food is very important to the residents of Moz and they are the lifeblood of this community.”
Taxi driver Sam Machele, 35, said the border closure had cut his income by more than half. “It is a massive issue financially when people can’t cross. If there is no movement, there is no money for our community,” he said.
Johanna Rwot, 44, owns a trading stall located metres from where visitors enter South Africa after passing through the border post. “I sell cold drinks, pap and meat. I have had almost no sales this week, but I came to work every day hoping the people would come.”
Logistics associations say they are concerned about the impact the unrest will have on business between the two countries.
Kelly said there had been severe disruption to air, rail, road and sea logistics. “There are huge financial repercussions for both countries — loss of revenue in terms of duties and income tax, VAT, company tax, loss of income for businesses large and small,” he said.
Explaining the figure of R10m in losses a day, he said: “Direct losses to freight logistics are around R6m, including damage or loss of vehicles; injury or loss of drivers; looting of loads; inability to retrieve vehicles; disruptions of exports and imports; loss of business due to consignment loads not being fulfilled; loss of fleet capacity to perform linked or other load agreements; loss of revenue for operations and extra security deployments.
“The rest is in other sectors, including servicing, manufacturing, tourism, retail, mining, agriculture, some of which have more reliance on road freight transport than others,” he said.
Juanita Maree, CEO of the Southern Africa Association of Freight Forwarders, said the unrest in Mozambique is taking its toll on South Africa. “The geopolitical conflict in Mozambique comes at a very delicate time for South Africa, when logistics and the supply chain are under pressure from several other disruptive challenges,” she said.
South Africa’s business sector has voiced concerns over the Southern African Development Community’s (Sadc's) slow response, calling on member states to move immediately into a leadership position as mediator to restore law and order and stabilise trade operations, which are critical to the regional economy.
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