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| 2nd Iron Ore Truck Crashes Into Goldblatt’s |
It's taken me a while to post this because I was fact-checking first. There’s been an interesting pattern of events going on here this year. On the only stretch of 4 lane divided highway in the country, there’s a steep and winding section that can be pretty treacherous. Eighteen-wheelers use it as well because it’s the only thoroughfare between the two major cities in the country, and it’s the route to the nearest border with South Africa from the capital.
The old iron ore mine was reopened late last year and trucks have been carrying their payload down the mountain to a town with a working railway line that then carries it out of the country and off to Asia for processing. So it’s currently being exported as raw iron ore dust.
In only 6 months 7-8 of these trucks have crashed on the mountain and spilled their load all over the place. Months later, the roads and median walls are still stained red. Miraculously, none of the drivers, nor anyone else, have been seriously injured in these accidents. One puzzling detail is that in this same period there have been close to zero accidents involving other large trucks. So what’s going on here?
For those who believe in these types of things, there is a hypothesis circulating that this odd series of events has something to do with the late King Sobhuza II’s proclamation before his death that no more iron ore would leave Swaziland unprocessed. Clearly, his desire then was that if the mine were to reopen the ore would be processed in-country, thereby providing more jobs and keeping more profits in-country as well. With the onset of these accidents where nobody is hurt but the iron ore is spilled all over the surrounding area, and no other large trucks are crashing, it makes one wonder.
Footnote: I drove by the most recent accident on June 18th after it had happened, but my car was not passing by when the photo was taken. It was a matter of time to witness one of these firsthand.
