Maputo — Trans-Africa Concessions (TRAC), the South African company that operates the Maputo-South Africa motorway, has announced that, as from Thursday, it will resume the collection of tolls at the two tollgates on the Mozambican side of the motorway.

During the December unrest and looting, former presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane ordered that tolls would no longer be collected.

Seeing that tollgates on other roads, operated by the Mozambican company Revimo, were utterly destroyed by rioters, TRAC obeyed Mondlane's illegal demand.

There are two tollgates on the motorway - one in Matola, and one in Moamba. Cited by the independent television station TV Successo, a TRAC spokesperson guaranteed that the human, technical and security conditions now exist for the tollgates to resume normal operations.

The tolls paid by motorists are supposed to be crucial for guaranteeing road maintenance. In addition, prior to the riots, TRAC was channelling about 48 million meticais (about 750,000 US dollars) every month to the State treasury.

TRAC's decision is a direct challenge to the power claimed by Mondlane, who describes himself as "President elected by the People'. Retaining the scrapping of the tolls for a further 100 days, is one of the measures decreed by Mondlane last Friday.

If TRAC succeeds in ignoring Mondlane's illegal demands, that may encourage other companies to follow suit.