On a P51bn precipice?

The Ponta Techobanine Inter-Regional Heavy Haul Railway, launched in April this year and projected to take 10 years to construct, involves a 1,100km rail link from the eastern part of Botswana, through Zimbabwe, reaching and including the proposed deep-sea port at Techobanine in Mozambique.

Sources within Botswana and Mozambique indicate that the South African government wanted the project abandoned to protect its transport and logistics industry, whose lifeblood is the sub-continent's increasing demands for inward goods and outbound mineral resources.