BY OWETHU DLAMINI AND PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE – The highly-anticipated Mozambique-Eswatini rail is the talk of town.
Following breaking the news that the above-mentioned rail line has started internal trials, the public, including vendors, expressed their interest, saying they could not wait to board the train to Mozambique.
Some even said this would make life easier as public transport (kombis) faring to the neighbouring country were scarce or usually full.
Worth noting is that ‘dobhaphansi’ vendors usually buy their stock (bales) in Mozambique.
In attempts to get views regarding the Mozambique-Eswatini passenger rail, this publication spoke to some vendors who sell clothes at the Mbabane Bus Rank as they frequently travel between the two countries.
Asked what they thought about this new development, Ncobile and Khanyisile Dlamini, who are vendors, expressed that this was an exciting development as they had never boarded a train before so it would definitely be a first for them.
“We travel frequently to and from Mozambique because we constantly need to get clothes to sell. Some of the ladies we work with are not around as we speak because they have gone to get clothes and other items to sell. Honestly speaking, this would be such an interesting experience for some of us because we have never boarded trains so the whole idea of boarding a train would just be great,” said Ncobile.
“We usually travel using the cheapest mode of transportation because as much as we are going to get clothes to sell, we need to ensure that we save costs as much as we possibly can. A trip to and from Mozambique usually costs E340 when we use public transport.
“We also need to put into consideration the costs of declaring our bales as we enter the border gates. It would really be great if the train would be affordable because we would get the experience of traveling by train to go to Mozambique as well as travel affordably,” said Ncobile.
Eswatini Railways Corporate Communications Manager Sive Manana said they were still doing consultations and would package the pricing and travel times.
“After all the appropriate consultations have been made and we have done our market research, the media will be called for a launch.
“As it is, it is still early to officially state the pricing- for all we know, price packages may be different,” said Manana.
