Truck crashes into Goldblatt's

MALAGWANE – Yet  another heavyduty truck carrying iron ore from the newly revived Ngwenya Iron Ore Mine overturned yesterday while descending Malagwane Hill.

This accident brings the number of heavy duty trucks involved in accidents along the Malagwane Hill in the past three months to six.

The trucks are all contracted to Salgaocar Swaziland Pty Limited, the company that revived the historic mine.

Fernando Joao Monane, who was driving the vehicle, escaped without any injuries even though the truck was extensively damaged.

Monane said he lost control of the truck when it developed mechanical faults in the braking system.

This was a few hundred metres before it reached the vicinity of the late Karl Grant’s residence.

The place is known among locals as Ka-Goldblatt.

A distressed Monane said he discovered that his brakes were not functioning properly as he was negotiating the corner opposite Eden Lodge.

"The truck closed its valves, which resulted in the brakes not functioning," he said.

"I then decided to remove the truck from the road because I feared it would gain speed and cause more damage by hitting other vehicles. However, I only managed to drive the truck to the open space near where it eventually crashed. I tried everything I could to avoid having the truck crash into the wall but because it was loaded with ore, the trailer pushed the front until it crashed," he said.

The accident happened before 10am.

When the Times SUNDAY team arrived at the scene, two police officers were found at the scene, taking statements from the driver and eyewitnesses.

Monane had managed to get out of the truck.

He had his left shoe on, which he eventually removed and sat at a distance.

One of the traffic officers heaped praises on Monane.

He applauded the Mozambican national for being brave, saying the manner in which he swerved the truck away from the road and allowed it to crash into the wall was remarkable.

"The way you did it shows that you are indeed a good driver. Looking at the distance you drove without brakes and also managed to remove the truck from the road to crash metres away, it shows how brave you were," said the officer.

By 2.30pm, tow trucks were still trying to remove the vehicle from where it had crashed.

To allow this, police officers closed the left lane near Karl Grant’s residence on the Manzini direction and redirected traffic to use the opposite lane down Malagwane.

This is the lane usually used by traffic going up to Mbabane.

In January 2012, five trucks from Salgaocar overturned at or near the same spot along the Malagwane Hill.

After the occurrence of these accidents, Motshane Member of Parliament Robert Magongo said the accidents caused by the trucks were inevitable.

He spoke in his capacity as Chairman of the Portfolio Committee on Public Works and Transport.

He said the accidents have exposed the shortcomings of government.

"The trucks travel along the roads at high speed which is why I say this was long overdue. This is a sign pitfall of the Ministry of Public Works," the MP said.

Magongo had said the speed at which the trucks travelled was like they wanted the nation to wake up one day and find that they had taken everything out of the country.

"The trucks travel day and night and you wonder what the hurry is," Magongo had said, challenging government to tell the nation the benefits Salgaocar had brought to the country.

"The trucks pay only E80 when entering Swaziland but trucks from Swaziland going into Mozambique pay E1 200. Who is looking after the interests of Swazis? Government must wake up and look after interests of Swazis," he said.

He further observed: "The country’s roads have already been damaged by these trucks. How are we going to repair them?"

No comment could be obtained from government yesterday.

Ntuthuko Dlamini, Minister of Public Works and Transport, did not pick up his phone when called.

His Principal Secretary (PS) Paul Nkambule was also not reachable.

His phone also rang unanswered.

Comments

I 'm sure this government is thirsty for blood of its pple coz malagwane,these trucks and kombis are a disaster waiting to happen. You want to have trucks carrying iron racing up & down on public roads
Apr 8, 2012, 1:07 AM, longweva (somnjalose@ymail.com)

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