Mozambique President says in negotiations with Zimbabwe to extend rail line to Botswana

By clubofmozambique.com

MAPUTO: Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi announced Monday that his government is in negotiations with the Zimbabwean authorities to extend the Machipanda railway to Botswana.

Currently the line runs from the central Mozambican port of Beira, to Machipanda on the border with Zimbabwe.

Extending the line to Botswana is part of a tripartite project between Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana, which also envisages construction of a deep water mineral port in the far south of Mozambique.

Nyusi mentioned these plans during a speech inaugurating the doubling of the track on the Ressano Garcia line, which links Maputo to South Africa.

“We are working with our brothers in Zimbabwe so that we can link the Machipanda line to Zimbabwe”, said Nyusi, promising that further discussions between the three countries involved will take place “in the coming weeks”.

The Mozambique-Botswana Joint Cooperation Commission met in Maputo on Monday, and at the end of the discussions, Mozambican Foreign Minister Veronica Macamo declared that major advances have been made in bilateral cooperation.

But clearly the main point under discussion was the projected deep-water port in the southernmost Mozambican district of Matutuine. Plans for such a port have been on the drawing board for decades, since they were first mooted in the colonial period.

Macamo said a tripartite agreement will be signed in Maputo on Friday “to encourage the negotiations on the port of Techobanine”.

“The discussions for the implementation of the project in question are expected to be finalized, taking into account the meeting at the highest level between Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi and his Botswana counterpart (Mokgweetsi Masisi), which will take place on Wednesday this week”, she said.

The port will be linked to Botswana by a 1,700 kilometre long railway that will also pass through Zimbabwe. The main cargo is expected to be Botswanan coal. There is considerable opposition to a new mineral port on environmental grounds.

“We have already spoken a great deal about this”, said Macamo, “but no tripartite agreement on the matter has ever been signed before. This project needs a great deal of synergy and mobilization of resources, and now the three countries are going to collaborate so that the project really does happen”.