While the situation at the Lebombo Border Post has been tumultuous of late and fewer than usual South Africans have travelled to Mozambique for holiday, the Border Management Authority (BMA) says it is all systems go with more than 1 000 trucks being processed at the border in 24 hours

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The commissioner of the BMA, Dr Michael Masiapato, began a multi-day oversight visit at Lebombo yesterday, which was predicted to be the peak of the December festive season traffic flow.

“Today, December 20, we have started the highest peak in terms of the movement of people, and things are going well, particularly here at Lebombo. Everything is going according to plan.

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“Just in the past 24 hours we have processed over 1 000 trucks crossing into Mozambique,” Masiapato said.

Masiapato said they have noticed an increase in the number of Mozambicans travelling to South Africa, mostly to buy food in Komatipoort before Christmas.

“In terms of the ordinary people who are travelling out of South Africa into Mozambique, most of the people are Mozambicans who are going back home.”

Masiapato said that they have not seen a lot of South Africans travelling to Mozambique.

“We understand that this is because of the political unrest and the challenges on the Mozambican side.

“The corridor is well managed by the Mpumalanga Traffic Police and the Cross Border Road Transport Agency, together with the Road Traffic Management Corporation.”