The Mozambican consulate in Nelspruit advised Mozambicans to travel to South Africa via the Ressano Garcia border post only in “extremely high priority” cases due to insecurity resulting from truck chaos at the border.
“Citizens of the country should travel to South Africa only to resolve extremely urgent issues, this is until there are security guarantees by the South African authorities not only in the border area with Lebombo, but also in the city of Mbombela (Nelspruit), where the number of robberies against Mozambicans,” reads a note distributed by the Mozambican consulate in Nelspruit, just over 200 kilometers from Maputo.
At stake is a disruption in border control in South Africa that has caused kilometers of heavy truck queues at the Comatiport-Ressano Garcia border at the Comatiport-Ressano Garcia border, leading to an increase in looting in the region, according to Mozambican authorities.
“The average waiting time, which at the beginning of 2023 was a maximum of 5 hours, is now 60 hours on the South African side of the border with a simple crossing that should not take so many hours of waiting. […] The authorities of both South Africa and Mozambique are warning people to pay attention to security measures when they are in South Africa, and emphasize, first of all, that overnight trips should be avoided, ”the note says.
South African authorities have announced interference with the registration system at the main crossing between the two countries, 100km from Maputo and 450km from Johannesburg, which has resulted in several stops in recent weeks.
According to the Mozambican consulate in Nelspruit, the situation is due to a sharp increase in the flow of trucks recorded over the past two years, now around 2,000 trucks per day, compared with an average of 600 trucks in previous years.
“On the other hand, the Mozambican customs administration system is not linked to the South African one, which makes the process of customs clearance of trucks even slower, and this situation could also be solved with a one-stop operation,” he adds. , on a note.
Congestion stretches for more than five kilometers, with heavy vehicles sometimes occupying two lanes of the road, which also makes it difficult for cars to move.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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