The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), the country's largest employers' organization, warned on Thursday of damage to the country's economy due to the wave of attacks on freight trucks in South Africa. To this end, the private sector advocates strengthening road safety.

According to Flávio Naiene, the CTA's vice-president for freight transport, quoted by Lusa, the economy is going backwards, because people are afraid to invest, to put their trucks on the road, and this is going to bring a lot of problems, both for transport operators and for commerce.

The South African government announced on Wednesday that at least 21 trucks have been burned in armed violence in three provinces of the country since last Saturday.

"Many other hauliers with trucks have stopped their vehicles because of the violence on South African roads. I, in particular, have my trucks parked because I'm afraid to go to South Africa, I gave my drivers a job, not to hand them over to their families in a coffin," said Flávio Naiene.

Flávio Naiene added that South Africa is the main source of essential goods for the southern and central regions of Mozambique and with the violence against the transporters "prices are going to skyrocket".

The source pointed out that the insecurity on the highways linking South Africa and Mozambique will force hauliers to miss payments to banks because the cars are not yielding, due to being hived off.