Maputo — The Mozambican government has requested assistance from China for the rehabilitation of the country's main north-south highway (EN1).
President Filipe Nyusi made the request in a meeting in Maputo on Monday with Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party, and the director of its Foreign Affairs Commission.
Speaking to reporters at the end of the meeting, Foreign Minister Veronica Macamo said that the total rehabilitation of EN1 was one of the matters discussed between Nyusi and Yang. "The question was put on the table, and the two governments will discuss it and find a solution", she said. "It is important to recall that China is a partner in the country's development programmes, and I believe that this case will be no exception".
Macamo said she could give no details since the matter is still under discussion, but she believed that a "satisfactory solution" will be found.
Much of EN1 is in a sorry state, with deep ruts and potholes compromising the transport of people and goods between the north, centre and south of the country. The road runs for over 2,000 kilometres from Maputo in the far south to Cabo Delgado province in the far north. A recent report by the independent television station STV showed the shocking condition of what should be the backbone of the Mozambican road network.
Since 2016, the government has not had the funds for far-reaching road reconstruction, because of the scandal of the country's "hidden debts". It was in April 2016 that the true extent of the illicit borrowing became publicly known - the previous government, under the then President Armando Guebuza, had given illicit loan guarantees that allowed three fraudulent, security-linked companies to borrow over two billion US dollars from the banks Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia. When the companies went predictably bankrupt, the loans became debts, and the creditors are demanding their money back plus extortionate sums in interest.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
When the scandal hit the media, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended its programme with Mozambique, and all 14 donors who had given direct support to the Mozambican state budget halted all further disbursements. This abrupt cut in foreign aid meant that no funds were available for major infrastructure projects such as the rebuilding of EN1.
Parts of the road, such as the stretch between the Inchope crossroads in Manica province to Caia on the south bank of the Zambezi, were rehabilitated in the late 1990s, but soon deteriorated because the government never implemented its own policy of making the users pay for the roads. So no tollgates were installed between Inchope and Caia.
It is not known whether any deal with the Chinese to rehabilitate EN1 will include toll gates, or whether the motoring lobby will be triumphant again in refusing to pay for the damage it causes. But without toll gates, any repairs to EN1 will be merely cosmetic.
