Maputo — The demand by private transport operators for a 40 per cent reduction in toll fees on the Maputo-South Africa motorway makes no sense, because heavy users of the toll road already receive a discount of almost 60 per cent, according to Ibraimo Remane, general director of Mozambique's National Roads Administration (ANE).

The toll gate at the Maputo end of the motorway is strategically placed so that it catches, not just vehicles on their way to the South African border, but also traffic between Maputo and the neighbouring city of Matola.

So the privately-owned minibuses (colloquially known as "chapas") that provide much of the capital's passenger transport have to pay the toll if they are plying routes between Maputo and Matola.

There are alternatives, avoiding the toll gate, but these are much longer and on poorer roads: so that using them is a false economy.

Last Wednesday, the tolls rose by over 20 per cent. The toll at the Maputo gate went up from 14,500 to 17,500 meticais, for light vehicles (a category that includes most of the chapas), an increase of 20.7 per cent. At current exchange rates, the new toll is equivalent to about 70 US cents.

The ANE and the South African consortium TRAC, that built and now operates the motorway, announced the new tolls a month in advance. But it was only in late February that the associations of chapa owners reacted - with demands for a 40 per cent discount, and threats to pull their vehicles off the roads.

On Sunday Remane told reporters that in reality, those chapa owners who make regular Maputo-Matola trips already enjoy a massive discount. A vehicle that crosses the toll gate at least 15 times a day (which is eight round trips between Maputo and Matola) enjoys a 59 per cent discount after the fifth day. About 1,750 private transporters, or 90 per cent of those who make the Maputo-Matola trip, are registered to benefit from this discount, said Remane. Once this discount was taken into consideration the increase in the tolls amounted to the almost negligible sum of 100 meticais (about 0.4 US cents) per chapa passenger.

The reaction of the chapa owners has been to demand the same treatment for private passenger transport on both sides of the border. According to Leonardo Cossa, of the Maputo Transport Operators Union (ATROMAP), there should be a fixed rate for chapas, rather than a discount depending on the number of trips made.

He said that at the Malelane toll gate in South Africa, a normal light vehicle pays 33 rands, but one used for passenger transport only pays 13 rands. He wanted to see the same system in Mozambique.

But 13 rands is equivalent to 52,000 meticais. Cossa is not comparing like with like: there is no toll gate on the South African side of the border that caters essentially for traffic only going a few kilometres between two neighbouring cities.

The transport operators are due to meet on Monday with the ANE. The head of the Federation of Mozambican Road Transport Operators (FEMATRO), Rogerio Manuel, cited in the independent newsheet "Mediafax", warned that, if consensus was not reached at this meeting, the chapa owners would "go on strike".

The associations are threatened to pull their vehicles off the roads on Tuesday. While this would certainly cause considerable inconvenience to the travelling public, the main losers would be the chapa owners themselves, who would suffer a day without any income.