Eswatini brings its events calendar to Maputo as a second fuel wave hits the road

August 31, 2026

Wordless fine-line illustration: Two borders posts at a quiet frontier with festival banners on one side and a row of idle fuel pumps on the other, a single minibus waiting between them

August’s regional tourism diplomacy depends on roads and pumps that were short of fuel again by the first week of the month.

Eswatini launched its calendar of events in Maputo on 10 August, at a meeting with Mozambique’s tourism authorities, and Hélder Jauana, chairman of the Agency for Tourism Development and Investment, said the two governments would work to improve cross-border travel. Chunky Mdluli of Eswatini called Mozambique “a vital channel” for her country’s tourism and named the MTN Bushfire and Lucho festivals as two-way draws.

The same week the road network that carries that traffic was short of fuel again. Government spokesman Inocêncio Impissa said on 4 August that Maputo and Matola were facing a second wave of shortages and that analysis was still under way. Annual inflation, by contrast, eased in the month to 6.45%.

A regional pitch with a border at the centre

The product is the trip across the line, and both ministries said so.

Jauana, quoted in AIM’s report of the meeting, said Mozambique should be seen as a complete experience for visitors and not only as a destination, and that encouraging tourists to consume local services, from accommodation to dining, maximises domestic economic impact. Mdluli said launching the calendar in Maputo is meant to consolidate partnerships with tour operators and travel agencies, and that Eswatini stays open for business and keen to deepen cooperation. The event shows a corridor product: festival weekends in Eswatini bought through Maputo agencies, with Mozambican lodges as the stopover.

Eswatini’s festivals are scheduled for fixed dates, which gives Mozambican operators something rare in the sector: demand they can see months ahead. A Maputo lodge can price a stopover package against the festival dates.

The fuel constraint

Imports were cheaper in the first quarter, yet queues returned in late July.

According to Plataforma Media, Mozambique spent US$236.4m on fuel imports in the first quarter of 2026, 1.4% less than a year earlier, of which diesel took US$164.9m, petrol US$56.4m and jet fuel US$15.2m. The government’s explanation, in Club of Mozambique’s account of 4 August, was that it did not yet know why stations had closed again after a calmer period.

The Plataforma Media report notes that fuel-sector companies face limits on access to foreign currency, one of the causes it lists for supply problems alongside the Middle East conflict. In the same weeks the May price rises, 45.5% for diesel and 12.1% for petrol, were still working through the economy.

Prices, credit and the rand

Prices eased in August, but the credit stock and the exchange gap tell a more cautious story.

Annual inflation was 6.45% in August, with prices down 0.28% on the month and 4.83% higher since January, according to INE figures reported by AIM. The Banco de Moçambique’s monthly summary lists loans to tourism at MT1,396.1m for July, the latest figure available at the end of August, 24.4% below December 2024.

The same summary has the rand at MT3.82 buying and MT3.90 selling at the reference rate on 31 July, while bureaux paid MT4.46, about 17% more than the banks’ MT3.80, so a South African cash visitor still gets a better deal at the bureau than at the bank.

What operators do with it

Sell the corridor, protect the supply line, and hold cash for the shoulder.

Lodges in the south should approach the Eswatini agencies now with festival-dated stopover packages priced in rand or emalangeni. They should also keep a fuel and generator reserve, because a guest who arrives on a cross-border package expects a working transfer on departure day.

Operators bidding at the November summit should attend with a dated supply-chain plan, since investors reading the August pump queues will ask how a lodge moves guests and goods when fuel is short. The summit is the occasion to show it.