The Portfolio Committee delegation was composed of JP Cronin (chair), AR Ainslie, MH Fazzie, H F Matlanyane, DN Mbombo, SB Farrow, and JJ Nieman. The Committee delegation was accompanied by senior officials from Transnet, Spoornet, the National Port Authority of South Africa (NPA), and the South African Road Agency Limited (SANRAL). In Maputo the delegation was received by a wide range of institutions and authorities, including the Minister of Industries and Commerce, HEC Morgado; a delegation from the Mozambican National Assembly; CFM - Ports and Railways of Mozambique E.P.; the Maputo Port Development Company; and Mozal Aluminium Smelter Company.

Transport-related infrastructure along the MDC that the delegation studied included:

The N4 road link-The implementation phase of the MDC was initiated with the launch of the Witbankto Maputo toll road in June 1998. The concession contract for the toll road project was signed in May 1997, with the preferred bidder TRAC (Trans African Concessions), a consortium of 14 companies. TRAC is responsible for upgrading and maintaining the toll road from Balmoral (at the Gauteng iMpumalanga provincial boundary) to Maputo in return for revenue earned from tollgate fees.

Five toll plazas have been established along the route, three in South Africa, and two in Mozambique. Most of the new construction has occurred on the Mozambique side. The road is 20 kilometres shorter than the old road, it is of better quality, and patrols and SOS phones along the route have improved security. SANRAL has prioritised the prevention of overloading by freight trucks. On the South African side, 6 weigh-bridges have been developed and overloading is now down to an estimated 0,7% of average daily truck traffic. On the Mozambican side the planned 3 weigh-bridges still need to be installed.

The rail-link - In December 2002 the railway concession was awarded to the Ressano Garcia Rail Consortium (RGRC). A South African-led consortium, including Spoornet, holds 51% of the shares in RGRC, while CFM (Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Mozambique) holds the other 49%. The Spoornet-led consortium will pay about $67 million to CFM over the 15-year period of the concession, and Spoornet will invest about RIOO million to upgrade the 90 kilometres of railway line between Ressano Garcia and Maputo.

Spoornet raised two concerns with the delegation. For upgrading and insurance-related purposes Spoornet investments are being complicated by the absence of mine-free certification around key installations like bridges; and, according to Spoornet, there is a lack of clarity around the status of the final 10 km of the line between Machava and the port of Maputo. The delegation raised these issues in our meeting with CFM, and we were reassured that the former concern could be resolved, and that the latter was a misperception on the side of Spoornet.

For their part, the CFM raised very serious concerns around new visa requirements imposed by the South African authorities, and more generally around the unhelpful way in which border controls in regard to rail passengers were being handled on the South African side. In the days preceding our visit, the CFM had taken the drastic step of cancelling their passenger trains to South Africa. These trains had been transporting some 900 passengers daily, until the new requirements had been introduced.

Maputo Port - Prior to the end of the colonial period in 1975, the port of Maputo was an important trade outlet for the industrial heartland of South Africa. After Mozambican independence, the apartheid regime used transport links to pursue a policy of regional domination and destabilisation. South African trade was channelled through internal ports, and transport infrastructure in Mozambique was by-passed or sabotaged. As a result, Maputo port volumes decreased from 11 million tons in 1975 to 1,6 million tons in the mid-1980s.

Maputo port and the adjoining Matola port remain excellent natural harbours and extensive wharfage still in a workable condition remains. There has been some recovery, and current cargo handled is now around 4 million tons a year. However, much of the infrastructure is in a serious state of decline and major investments are required to return to a projected 10 to 12 million tons in the next ten years.

In December 2000, a 15-year concession for Maputo port was awarded to the Maputo Port Development Company (MPDC), in which the lead investor is the UK-based Mersey Docks and Harbour Company. The MPDC plans to invest $70 million over three years in upgrading the port and purchasing new equipment. At the time of our visit, investment was just beginning, and it was too soon to assess the likely impact. However, in the 'view of the delegation, while any investment should be welcomed, $70 million is a relatively modest amount given the challenges confronting Maputo port.

For his part, the Mersey Docks representative submitted that the principal immediate impediment to the port beginning to achieve much greater volumes lay in the chaotic state of affairs at the Ressano Garcia/Lebombo road border. While the port was endeavouring to operate a 24-hour a day operation, the border was only open to freight traffic for 8 hours a day. In addition, while the freight clearance facility either side of the border and customs clearance took place efficiently, if for a limited daily period, immigration control at both sides of the border was causing 3 to 4 hour delays. The build up of delayed freight trucks at the border further impeded free traffic flow.

General observations While the transport infrastructure and transport operations related to the MDC arc clearly beginning to function with varying degrees of effectiveness, there are broader strategic questions which are related to transport, but which go beyond the immediate remit of the Portfolio Committee on Transport. In particular, the Committee believes that the contribution of transport infrastructure and operations along the MDC to balanced and sustainable development in both countries needs to be continuously assessed. In 2001 South Africa's exports to Mozambique accounted for more than R5 billion, while South Africa's imports from Mozambique were only R238 million. It is clear that imbalances of this order will be difficult to sustain and the danger is that further stream-lining of the transport connections may aggravate rather than lessen the imbalances. Transport infrastructure and transport operations need, as much as possible, to be integrated into wider developmental issues directed at more balanced development.

Recommendations-the Committee recommends that the National Department of Transport engages with the Department of Home Affairs and the South African Customs in order to facilitate an effective resolution of the problems encountered at the Ressano Garcia/Lebombo border. In the view of the Committee, it is counter-productive to encourage major investments in transport infrastructure and operations along the MDC to ensure much greater efficiency on the one hand, while undermining that efficiency at the border-post on the other.