The completion of the Macuse rail-port project, in Zambezia province, central Mozambique, which aims to link Macuse, in Zambezia province, to Chitima, Tete, is at a standstill with no solution in sight. The Minister of Transport, Mateus Magala, blames the delay on the company (Thai Mozambique Logistic) involved in the project.

At the time, the project was awarded to Thai Moçambique Logística (TML), a Thai company that holds 60% of the company's shares. But since then, work has not progressed.

According to a DWThe work on the ground, which should have started in 2017, has so far hardly begun, which is not pleasing either the local authorities in the regions involved or the population. The initial plan called for trains and ships to start running in 2022. But that hasn't happened and there are no signs that it will in the medium term, according to the local population.

Last week, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Mateus Magala, said he was annoyed at the slow pace of implementation of the project that would link the two provinces of central Mozambique, Zambézia and Tete, by a 650-kilometer railway.

According to the minister, however, the blame cannot be placed on the government, but rather on the private companies involved in the project.

"At the moment, we work with the private sector as a driving force and not everything that is being done by the private sector is under government control. In the case of Macuse, the private sector is failing. We've heard a lot of promises and the constraints of the moment, like Covid-19. I don't think that can be an excuse for us to find bold and urgent solutions," said Magala, quoted by the same portal.

The representative of the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique in Zambezia province, Carlos Joaquim, was also outraged by the situation.

According to Carlos Joaquim, it is the central government that should give explanations. "I would like Minister Magala to say what is behind these delays in this project. The minister should have sought out this group of businesspeople, who are involved in the project, to find out what financial state this port is in. What we can say is: Zambezia is very unlucky: every year they lie, saying that there is a project, and then another government comes along and says that there is nothing to it," Joaquim laments.