Swaziland February 2007 |
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| Border fee hiked, (Swazi Observer, 2007-02-02):-A hammer mill funded through the Regional Development Fund, whose business performance was robust, making a profit of at least E9 000, has been hit by different challenges and is now making less than E2 000 a month. The hammer mill, based in Mangcongco area, was strategically built near the Swaziland and South African border to serve customers from the two countries. Since its construction, the mill has been harvesting money especially from South Africans who were crossing the border to grind their maize. Chairman of the mill, Amos Seyama, said it grinds quality mealie meal and because of that it won itself customers from South Africa. “At the border they were charged only E5 for crossing to Swaziland but since late last year, when we were receiving a lot of customers and business was thriving, the border fee was hiked to E50. This is a lot of money and most of our customers preferred going to milling companies in their country,” stated Seyama. He said the situation was further worsened by the electricity cuts they were constantly experiencing in the area - forcing some customers from south Africa to wait two days to have their maize grinded. It was not only time consuming on their part but also meant that they had to pay double at the border and because of that customers from the neighbouring country vanished. Seyama said this year is also a terrible year for their business as the community did not harvest anything from the field because of the drought. He said the mill would have to shut down and such was going to hit hard on the project members as they were benefiting a lot from the project. “From this project we were buying all the basic needs for our families and were able to pay school fees for our children,” he said. The mill is also benefiting the community as they do not have to travel long distances to have their maize grinded. | |
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp |