Chaos border

The situation at Ressano Garcia, the main border post between Mozambique and South Africa, has descended into chaos, with some travelers waiting for four days (Sunday to Wednesday) to cross the border, and with no sign that anything resembling normality will be restored any time soon. The huge delays are caused by problems on the South African side of the border, some arising from the new lockdown imposed by the South African authorities to halt the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic, but others because the South African border officials are rejecting the rapid Covid-19 tests administered in Mozambique. The Mozambican health authorities set up Covid-19 testing facilities at the border – but when Mozambicans, attempting to return to their jobs in South Africa, crossed the border, they were told that the tests were not valid, and were obliged to return.

By Wednesday afternoon, according to the independent television station STV, the queue of cars and trucks waiting to cross the border stretched back for 17 kilometres. People in the queue told reporters they felt the Mozambican government had abandoned them, since they had been given no information about the situation, or when the problems might be solved. Aeriel photographs showed that the queue occupied the entire highway, leaving no space for vehicles going in the opposite direction, from South Africa towards Maputo. There is an alternative – negotiations between the Mozambican and South African authorities led to the re-opening, on 1 January, of the border post at Ponta de Ouro, on the border between Matutuine district and the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. But many Mozambicans seem unaware that this border post is now open.

Using Ponta de Ouro would imply a huge detour for people attempting to return to jobs in the South African gold and platinum mines – nonetheless, this would an improvement on waiting for days at Ressano Garcia. The economic losses from the border chaos are enormous. Companies operating bus routes between Maputo and Johannesburg have had to suspend their services. Those whose trucks are stuck in the Ressano Garcia queue are losing money by the minute. And Mozambican migrant workers, who should be back at their jobs on the mines, worry that they might lose those jobs. The situation infuriated Kekobad Patel, the head of the fiscal, customs and international trade portfolio of the Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations (CTA). Interviewed by STV, Patel asked whether the Mozambican government was all on holiday, since there was little sign of senior officials visiting the Ressano Garcia queue.

“The spectacle that we have witnessed shows total disorganization”, he accused. At the start of the festive season, the Mozambican authorities boasted that everything was well in hand, with joint teams set up between the police, the customs and immigration services, and the National Road Transport Institute (INATTER). These teams should have been able to solve the problems at Ressano Garcia, said Patel, but they were nowhere to be seen. He found it absurd that people should arrive at the border without proper travel documents, and without the required Covid-19 test with a negative results. “What’s the role of screening?”, he asked.He refused to blame the chaos exclusively on the South Africans, pointing to the recent scandal of forged Covid-19 tests, exposed by the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”. Health Minister Armindo Tiago has admitted that this is a real problem, and one which his Ministry has handed over to the police and to the prosecution services.

“We have to accept that we are the first guilty party”, said Patel. “Mozambique has to be able to show that it can do things properly”. Asked about the South African refusal to accept Mozambican rapid Covid-19 tests, Tiago said the matter is being handled by the Foreign Ministry, which would coordinate with the relevant South African authorities “so that this refusal can be solved. And we would like it to be solved today (Wednesday)”. However, all that Deputy Foreign Minister Manuel Goncalves could say to STV was that relations with South Africa “are good. They are excellent. This is just a phase”.