Ramotswa Border Bridge opened

Drivers and road users from Botswana and South Africa have been warned to desist from driving carelessly as well as taking the law into their hands whenever an accident has happened on the roads linking the two countries.

The warning was made by both Transport Ministers of Botswana Kitso Mokaila and his counterpart, Dipuo Peters on the side lines of the official opening of the Ramotswa / Swartkopfontein Bridge on Monday.

For years, road users and the communities of South Africa whose villages are along the highway from the Botswana border in Ramotswa to Zeerust have often clashed whenever an accident had occurred inside the said villages.

Botswana vehicles often go through the villages at high speed, sometimes causing accidents whereupon the affected communities would retaliate by blocking the roads using any obstacle they deem fit, burning tyres as well as breaking the cars. Speaking to The Midweek Sun, both ministers warned drivers and pleaded with the communities of both countries to ensure they abide by the law.  

Minister Dipuo Peters said motorists must know that the driver’s licences that they have are just facilitation by government to move a vehicle, not for one to misbehave on the road, whether, in Botswana or South Africa. “We do have SADC protocols in terms of recognition of each other’s documents; we say it is important that you obey the rules of the road. Equally, we are appealing to pedestrians in these communities not to use the road carelessly when they could use pedestrian pathways like on this new bridge - we have created that particular space,” she said.

The bridge was built and completed on time at a cost of R78.1 million. It was originally planned for R6.9 million in 2009 when both countries mapped the way forward, but the amount changed due to price escalation between the time of the concept and the construction. The idea to construct the bridge started in 2009 when the two governments met to map the way forward as to how they could improve the existing river crossing structures between the two countries. This initiated the bilateral agreement between the governments.

The agreement was that Botswana will fully fund the design and construction of the Platjan Bridge in the Bobirwa area, whilst South Africa was to design and construct Swartkopfontein/Ramotswa border bridge. Mokaila said the completion of the bridge will help reduce congestion on the Tlokweng-Zeerust road as the Ramotswa route is much shorter.