Piet Retief's access to Swaziland

Piet Retief is a town in Mpumalanga on the N2, south west of Swaziland. It is surrounded by pine and bluegum wood plantations. There are 3 border posts to Swaziland, all three within 100 km from the town.

Emahlatini (Sicunusa on Swaziland's side) is the closest of the three border posts and only 21 km out of town. It can be reached by a tar road, but sad to say, the road is in a terrible condition. Pot holes force you to drive more alongside the road than on it. The local farmers attempted to fix the road but was prevented by the provincial government from doing so. It appears as if there is no intention from the Mpumalanga provincial government to fix the road soon. A real shame and slap in the face of all tax payers from this area.

The tarred road on the Swaziland side leading to Manzini, is in perfect condition. Many tourists use this border post as a quick access to the lowveld or Mozambique. Locals from Swaziland also frequent this border post to do their shopping in South Africa, adding to the average of 25,000 people crossing here per month. No commercial traffic can be accommodated as there is no SARS or custom facilities. The border post opens only at 8:00 and closes at 18:00 every day.

Bothashoop is 30 km from Piet Retief and the smallest of the three border posts. It can only be reached by gravel road, which is in a better condition than the tar road to Emahlatini. It is a small border post, but extremely neat and tidy with friendly staff. They are the proud owners of the floating trophy for the best border post to Swaziland.

About 100 to 200 locals from Swaziland per day are the principle users of the border post, operating from 8:00 to 16:00. They are dropped by taxi/bus on the Swaziland side (called Gege) and then collected by bus/taxi on the SA side. The same procedure is followed when they return to Swaziland.

Mahamba is the bigger, and only commercial, border post of the three. It is 35 km from Piet Retief and can be reached via the tarred R543 in good condition. The post is operational from 7:00 to 22:00 and has the same name on the Swaziland side.

We crossed the border here into Swaziland, but even so, could not find a friendly staff member to get more information. It is however, a very modern border post. Our crossing and declaration of cameras and laptops were processed electronically - very efficient and impressive.

The roads on the Swaziland side were in an equally good condition. The border post can be recommended for quick access to the lowveld or Mozambique.