Crime, loss of income, health and safety hazards and school attendance being disrupted.
These are just some of the issues with the seemingly never-ending deadlock at the Lebombo Border Post, forcing the community to its knees.
Serious intervention is needed, and according to Komatipoort Business Chamber’s convener, Jan Engelbrecht, a petition was recently formed by the Lebombo Taxi Association and the local community policing forums, supported by both the Komatipoort and Malalane business chambers and other affected parties, in an effort to solve this issue once and for all.
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The petition demands effective, round-the-clock traffic policing, confinement of freight trucks to the N4 and connected staging areas, and severe penalties for repeat offenders, including truck owners.
He said the stretch of N4 close to Komatipoort and the border post has been overridden by a series of crippling heavy vehicle traffic jams, sometimes extending up to 20km.
Engelbrecht said the high number of trucks caught the systems off guard, hence the border crossing process is too slow and creates traffic backlogs. As such, he said the chamber has been seeking solutions since May 2022, collaborating with various stakeholders to implement immediate and long-term measures. “Some of these measures include 24/7 traffic law enforcement, digitising traffic flow towards the border, staging areas, and restricting heavy vehicles to the N4, which is designed for such traffic,” he said.
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“The recent deadlock has once again cut off the primary access to Komatipoort, immobilising all vehicle movement in and out of the town until traffic law enforcement intervened. This recurring problem has become a troubling reality for the town’s inhabitants,” said Engelbrecht. “Exacerbating the issue are truck drivers. In an effort to bypass the lengthy queues, they resort to using alternative routes and backroads, which has only led to widespread gridlocks.
“The town’s streets and sidewalks have been dragged into this chaos, causing inconvenience for businesses, homeowners, street vendors and pedestrians.
“Highlighting the magnitude of the issue, consider that an orderly truck line would at times extend to Mbombela, with the last trucks lining up next to Nelspruit. This unsustainable situation clearly illustrates the gravity of the problem.”
He said local businesses have felt the brunt of the situation. A shareholder in the local Engen fuel station, Richard Williams, reported a 20% drop in turnover.
The local golf club president, Theo Stronkhorst, reported losses of up to R150 000 due to tournament cancellations. Both Williams and Stronkhorst are chamber members.
A transporter, Dion Gregory, had previously told Lowvelder the backlogs are costing transporter companies millions of rands a day.
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The Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism’s (KLCBT) COO, Linda Grimbeek, said these instances point to the significant economic impact on the local and wider regional economy, including a decline in cross-border tourism and medical service visits by Mozambican residents to Lowveld clinics and hospitals.
Engelbrecht said there is a proposal that suggests creating a staging facility at Kilometre 7 (about 7km from the border), from where trucks can proceed to the border. This strategy aims to manage congestion at an earlier stage. He said the initiative will be trialled for three months. He said creating a viable holding and excise facility at Kilometre 7 is futile without proper traffic management and control.
Only continuous, round-the-clock traffic police deployment and strict penalties for transgressors will change the situation, he insisted.
“It is common to witness reckless actions like trucks driving into oncoming traffic and their drivers not being arrested, which highlights the need for 24/7 enforcement,” he said.
