The tragic fate of the ‘old’ ferry
Spira Tlhankane | Monday March 2, 2026 06:00
It sits at the Quadripoint, just below the far-reaching steel and concrete of the Kazungula Bridge. Like a veteran benched after a long and bruising career the old horse was once the crossing, but now he is the backdrop.
For decades, the Kazungula ferry a broad, motorised pontoon of grit and roar carried the hopes of traders, the impatience of truck drivers and the nervous excitement of travellers crossing the 400-metre stretch of the Zambezi River between Botswana and Zambia.
It bore the weight of regional commerce on its steel deck and sometimes it is said to have carried more than 70 tonnes at a time. It ferried cattle trucks, fuel tankers, buses packed with families, and weary drivers who had queued for hours beneath the Chobe sun.
But this week as Zambia and Botswana launched the Kazungula Bridge Authority, the old ferry watched as its replacement towered above him. This is not just a regular replacement but a $269 million, 923-metre-long road and rail masterpiece arching over the confluence where the Chobe River meets the Zambezi. The bridge is taller, wider, stronger and engineered to carry far more weight and far more people, and to do so without the groan of cables or the churn of propellers. From below, the ferry can only look up as the trucks that once depended on it now glide overhead with barely a pause.
On May 10, 2021, ribbons were cut, placards unveiled and balloons released to mark the commissioning of the bridge. In a VIP marquee pitched almost within sight of the old pontoon, Botswana President Duma Boko and Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia this week hailed the bridge as a symbol of regional ambition and African excellence. The poor pontoon heard the thunderous applause and watched as the praise for the bridge became unrestrained. “The Kazungula Bridge is a masterpiece of infrastructure that stands out to be Africa’s newest super bridge. It is not just a marvel but a benchmark for the region and the continent as a whole,” declared Zambia’s Minister of Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development, Charles Milupi during the launch.
The bridge, he said, would catalyse tourism and transform the only place in the world where the natural boundaries of four countries Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe meet into a world-class destination. The ferry was not mentioned by Milupi in his speech.
For his part, Botswana’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Noah Salakae commended the bridge as a valuable continental asset. It replaces, he noted, “the ancient ferry pontoon system which had proven not only inefficient but very slow and highly unreliable.” “Ancient, inefficient, slow and unreliable,” the words stuck. It was an unceremonious farewell for a vessel that had for years stitched together two economies and served as a crucial artery for trade through the Kazungula border post.
To be fair, the ferry had its flaws and there were dark days when it broke down midstream, stranding trucks and triggering traffic nightmares that snaked back toward Kasane and beyond.
There were Christmas seasons when cargo queue stretched for kilometres, drivers cooking meals by the roadside as they waited for their turn to board. But there were also brighter days and many within the area remember the deep rumble of its engine below deck, throbbing like a living heart. There was the operator’s whistle slicing through river air, ropes cast off and the careful steering out of harbour. There were moments of stillness midstream when passgers leaned against railings and watched the brown waters swirl beneath them. There were times when hippos surfaced in the distance as the banks became alive with birds.
For the people of Chobe, the ferry was more than infrastructure but a presence and movement. It was the largest vessel plying those waters and a mechanical giant in a landscape of wildlife and wilderness. At the time children would point, visitors would take photographs and truck drivers would swap stories as they inched forward.
There were two ferries in total, one from Botswana and one from Zambia, shuttling back and forth between the respective border posts. It was a slower era of cross-border trade but an era defined by human scale, by eye contact, shouted instructions and the clank of metal against metal.
Now the rhythm has changed because the ferry’s replacement being the Kazungula Bridge serves as a seamless corridor for the Kazungula One Stop Border Post, streamlining procedures, reducing clearance times and lowering trade costs. Trucks no longer wait for tides of chance or mechanical fortune but they move in steady procession by reinforcing the border’s position as a key gateway for regional trade and connectivity.
The ferry meanwhile sits idle not quite retired and not reassigned. At one point, authorities indicated that it would be transferred to the Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) to be repurposed as a tourism asset. Given its historical significance and its strategic location within the Kasane-Kazungula redevelopment project, officials believed it held enormous tourism potential.
But that transfer has yet to materialise because now the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure spokesperson, Tiro Kganela told the media this week the ferry has not been donated because it remains on standby as backup in case anything happens to the bridge.
For a vessel that once carried the weight of two nations’ trade, the word “backup” must sting because it sits beneath the very structure that replaced it and ready to serve only if it fails.
And yet, perhaps there is quiet dignity in that for all its celebrated strength, the bridge cannot do what the ferry once did by carrying trucks across water, feeling the river push back and navigating currents. The bridge is fixed, monumental and immovable but the ferry was alive responsive, adaptable, intimate with the river’s moods.
This weekend at the Kazungula Bridge Marathon, the Quadripoint transforms into a festival of movement. Marathons cross the bridge’s elegant span and a music festival will light up the riverbanks with noise and colour. Loudspeakers will boom, lights will flicker and crowds will cheer as the ferry stands a short distance away watching as celebrations unfold in honour of its successor. One wonders what the ferry would make of the spectacle.