Charlene Smith
On March 16 1984, former president PW Botha met his Mozambican counterpart, Samora Machel, at the Nkomati River to sign an accord that effectively blackmailed Mozambique.
Next month, on June 6, President Nelson Mandela and Machel’s succesor, President Jaoquim Chissano, will open the Maputo development corridor, strengthening relations between the two countries and heralding an economic revolution for Mozambique and South Africa.
In terms of the 1984 agreement, Mozambique had to expel African National Congress cadres to slow the internal South African liberation struggle.
It did anything but that: by September 1984,there were widespread riots in South Africa against the new tricameral Constitution. By mid-1985 the United States led international sanctions against South Africa, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions was born.
The development corridor is not only a symbol of the ANC-led government recognising that it is payback time to the frontline states for their support of the struggle, but it is an economic imperative.
South Africa cannot expand its markets if the states around it remain among the poorest in the world. It cannot control illegal migration if the citizens of those countries do not have opportunities at home.
The R35-billion Maputo development corridor is the largest project of its kind in Africa.
Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa says other African states are examining the model it is creating for linking centres of economic excellence with export markets. Investment is arriving from around the world, and a seminar in Austria next week devoted to the project is likely to intensify that.
The project is creating interesting socio- economic spin-offs, with urban migration to Gauteng from Mpumalanga reversing as Build, Operate and Transfer schemes create opportunities for skills development, jobs and the establishment of new enterprises.
Research by property consultants has shown that Nelspruit is the fastest-growing industrial and commercial property market in the country. Little surprise, then, that Mpumalanga’s gross domestic product soared from R28-billion in 1993 to R40-billion last year. It has jumped from being the sixth-ranked province to the third-richest in the country.
Last year the Mpumalanga government, together with Gencor and the Development Bank of Southern Africa, drew up a list of 91 projects worth R5-billion, which will create 35 000 to 40 000 sustainable jobs.
It also has implications for South Africa’s busy ports and their ancillary services: they will have to hone their product better as Southern African states switch to Maputo harbour, or even Walvis Bay. Last month, for example, the trans-Kalahari highway – from Windhoek and Walvis Bay through Botswana to the Maputo corridor – opened.
Phosa said that the abattoir in Francistown, which processes the bulk of Botswana’s export beef and now uses Cape Town harbour almost 2 000km away, was keen to switch to Maputo habour, cutting travelling times in half. Swazi sugar producers will send a test consignment through Maputo harbour, rather than Durban, later this year to test its efficacy.
But can Maputo cope? The harbour is still run down and littered with wrecks. Beira and Maputo harbours share one dredger, although the Japanese have promised assistance.
The Mozambican government is expected soon to award a concession for the rehabilitation of the port. The flow of goods to the harbour, at present about 100 000 tons a month, is expected to rise to 300 000 tons by the end of the year.
But Mozambican developers are slow in planning ahead to deal with the growing pressures. Isolated by the ravages of colonial war, a rebel insurgency, South African destabilisation and its attachment to socialism, Mozambique has become accustomed to being poor and ignored by prosperous nations.
The roads to Komatipoort are crumbling under their massive load. To deal with this, R150-million has been set aside for a 24-hour one-stop service centre at Komatipoort, similar to border controls in the European Community, where passports and visas can be processed speedily.
Heavy road use has idiosyncratic repercussions. The Malelane toll plaza is being reconsidered after the Kruger National Park complained that it would be only 3km from its fence, and would disturb wildlife.
The folk of Witbank and Middelburg complained that the new toll road for the corridor would have serious economic consequences for them as they commuted between the towns – so another link road between the two towns is being upgraded.
But there is a limit to what roads can handle. Spoornet is investigating upgrading and increasing passenger and goods traffic to Mozambique, and a study is under way with Swaziland to look at reviving rail links between Mafikeng, Gauteng, Ermelo, Swaziland and Maputo.
In addition, feeder roads between Rustenburg and Pretoria, Phalaborwa and Nelspruit and the Lebombo corridor through northern KwaZulu-Natal are being upgraded and feeding into what will be one of the greatest highways on the African continent – and what is now an overcrowded, crumbling road, dotted with construction equipment, hawkers’ stalls and new hotels.