By Rex Mphisa
South Africa’s Department of Transport plans to construct a new toll plaza near the Beitbridge Border Post, adding to the financial burden of motorists.
The proposed new toll gate near Beitbridge Border Post will be the third within 3km, adding to existing fees of $37 for small cars, $94 for buses, and $312 for trucks, charged by Zimbabwe National Roads Agency (Zinara) and Zimborders respectively.
Reports say SA’s Transit Assistance Bureau (Transist) has warned the proposed toll road is likely to lead to a public outcry, particularly by local residents working in the locality of the border.
And for Zimbabweans heavily reliant on SAPS Musina town for general supplies, the development will be a heavy blow.
“It will impact negatively on Zimbabweans at Beitbridge. We depend on Musina and everyday residents of our town go to SA for supplies. We wonder what happened to concessions that we should have. When presidents Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe opened the New Limpopo Bridge, locals should be exempted,” former Beitbridge Mayor Munyaradzi Chitsunge said.
“Business activity at Beitbridge is at an all time low with most residents having been made redundant when most trucks left Beitbridge for Forbes Border post now believed busier than Beitbridge. While these charges at Beitbridge are important to pay for development, the charges should not scare users,” said Chitsunge.
Although Zimborders officials say there has been a rise in traffic using Beitbridge transporters claim the opposite saying charges at Beitbridge are deterrent.
The proposal by SA, gazetted for public comment last Friday, aims to capitalise on the strategic importance of the key trade route, as outlined by the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) under the Sanral and National Roads Act.
This comes after Sanral declared a 1.1km stretch of the N1, encompassing roads, parking area and buildings on the South African side of the Beitbridge border post, as national roads under its jurisdiction, in 2018.
The declaration paved the way for tolling vehicles on this critical corridor in Limpopo’s Musina Municipal District.
The route, the busiest border crossing between South Africa and Zimbabwe, is an artery of regional trade linking South Africa with Zimbabwe, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and other Southern African Development Community member states.
Beitbridge handles thousands of individuals and hundreds of trucks daily, with over 800 trucks now crossing each day following significant upgrades.
The border post was upgraded at a cost of $300 million, but that cost is now being footed by motorists and other users as Zimborders operates to recoup its money and profit on a build-operate-transfer arrangement for 17 years.
Up to date Zimbabwe has been the lone beneficiary from the tolls despite the other one being for the bridge joining the two neighbors.