Mozambique

January 2005

  
Funds available to start 'Unity Bridge', (Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique, 2005-01-08):-Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano declared on Friday that Mozambique and Tanzania now have sufficient funds to start building the "Unity Bridge" between the two countries, over the Rovuma river which forms the border. Chissano was speaking to reporters in the northern Mozambican city of Pemba, immediately after he and his Tanzanian counterpart. Benjamin Mkapa, had signed a declaration of intent on financing, designing, building, operating and maintaining the bridge. "Were it not for technical questions, we would already have started", said Chissano. The "Unity Bridge" is a dream of the two men who led Mozambique and Tanzania to independence, Samora Machel and Julius Nyerere - but in the 29 years since Mozambican independence no donor or funding agency has shown any interest in such a project. So the two governments have decided to advance on their own, bit by bit. As long as there are no outside partners interested in the bridge, Mozambique and Tanzania will disburse funds annually from their state budgets. Chissano estimated the total cost at around 33 million US dollars. He added that the draft Mozambican state budget for 2005 (which has not yet gone before the country's parliament) contains funds destined for the bridge, which Chissano regarded as crucial "for implementing the ideal of regional integration of SADC (Southern African Development Community)". "The benefits from the bridge will not be limited to bringing together the people only of this region, but of all Africa", he claimed. "Our enthusiasm for this undertaking is redoubled when we consider that it is part of the infrastructure development projects of NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development)". Chissano recognised that the costs of the bridge represent a huge challenge for the two countries, but he regarded this as "an unavoidable challenge that we must win. So we must resort to the vision that our late presidents Mwalimo (Nyerere) and Machel had, and mobilise our own resources". This is one of the last acts of state that Chissano will undertake as President of the Republic, a post he will hand over to President-Elect Armando Guebuza, probably at the end of this month (the exact data will depend on how long it takes the Constitutional Council to deal with disputes arising from the 1-2 December general elections). Chissano remarked "I am leaving office with peace of mind, since I am sure that the construction of this bridge will go ahead". "This role will also play a fundamental role on the future of the Mtwara Corridor". he added. (This transport corridor centres on the Tanzanian port of Mtwara, and involves Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique.) "With the conclusion of this bridge the overland link from Cape Town in South Africa to Cairo in Egypt will be shorter", said Chissano, "particularly when we consider that the building of the major new bridge over the Zambezi is also ready to start". Mozambique's Minister of Public Works, Roberto White, told AIM that the project also involves building five kilometres of access roads on either bank of the Rovuma. He said the bridge itself will be 600 metres long, and 10.3 metres wide. It will be between 7.5 and 10 metres high, depending on research still being undertaken by experts from the two countries. White thought that construction could take two and a half years. The first design for the bridge dates back to 1977, and underwent improvements in 1981. But with Mozambique fighting for survival against the war of destabilisation waged by the apartheid regime, nothing further happened until 1992, when the Tanzanian and Mozambican governments signed a set of minutes on the matter. Another decade passed until, in 2002, the two governments signed a memorandum of understanding on joint implementation of the project. "Finally today we have the signing of this historic declaration of intent on the legal framework to start carrying out the project", said White.  
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp