New highway connecting Mozambique and South Africa

Chinese and South African companies to build new road in southern Mozambique.

Construction of a new highway connecting the north-eastern tip of South Africa with the southern Mozambican coastal city Vilanculos, 500 km due east, is scheduled to begin in May 2018 and be completed within three years.

The Mapinhane-Pafuri regional road (N222) will cross the Mozambican provinces of Inhambane, Gaza and Maputo, connecting Mapinhane, south of Vilanculos, with the Pafuri region, which borders on north-east South Africa and southern Zimbabwe.

The $780 million project is being undertaken by the South African company Capital Projects in partnership with the China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC), which is also involved in the $1 billion Techobanine deepwater port at Matutuíne in the southern Maputo province.

The Mozambican government says the new 500-km highway, which has been in the pipeline for a decade but had funding difficulties until now, will reduce traffic in the capital Maputo and increase tourism along the beautiful coast of Inhambane province north of Maputo.