16 May 2022

Botswana and Zambia will next month meet to discuss the modalities of running the Kazungula Bridge.

In an interview with Botswana’s High Commissioner to Zambia, Mr Alpheus Matlhaku after the diplomats toured the Kazungula Bridge on Saturday, Mr Matlhaku said since inception of the project, there was a Joint Steering Committee spearheading the project progress on behalf of the two countries, but since the project had been completed, there was need to establish the Bridge Authority.

He said one of the responsibilities of the bridge authority would be to manage the bridge, further noting that it was already agreed that the authority would be housed in Kazungula at the project office and the chief executive officer would be from Zambia while the Director of Financial Administration would be from Botswana.

He said the Kazungula Bridge Authority would come up with ways on how the citizens of the two countries that utilise the bridge could do so without compromising security.

He cited that currently pedestrians were not allowed on the bridge as a way of prohibiting any illegal transactions on the facility.

On other issues, the High Commissioner indicated that although he had no statistics at hand; the bridge had improved trade in the region.

He indicated that according to reports, traffic from both directions had increased as about 400 trucks cross daily compared to the 80 that used to cross during the era of the ferry.

Earlier, the bridge project environmentalist, Mr Mothusi Ntseme, who took the delegation on tour said the ‘bridge is 923 metres long’ and had been constructed in such a way that would accommodate the contraction and expansion of materials that occur due to change in weather temperatures so as to avoid cracks.

The deepest end of the bridge which is at pier number five is considered to be the border between the two countries, he said. ENDS