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THE government is reviewing operations at Beitbridge Border Post to tame rampant congestion and delays to facilitate smooth movement of human and vehicular traffic. Immigration officials at the border say the re-organisation of the country’s busiest port of entry was being spearheaded by the Ferret team with most changes set to take effect from October 1.
The Ferret team is made up of officials from immigration, the police, Zimra, Ministry of Transport and other security agents manning the border.
“As stakeholders we’ve agreed to harmonise operations with the view of improving efficiency. We’ve started clearing the parking space on the border on the departure side, which had been heavily congested with employees and clearing agents’ vehicles,” said an official who requested anonymity.
“Under the new order, officials are now parking their vehicles outside the border. In some cases they’ll have to make use of the space in the truck parking area.”
The official said different interested groups agreed that only official station vehicles and those with reserved parking lots would be allowed into the border area.
It is also understood the team was working on creating permanent clearing points for different categories of travellers.
“There’ll be clearing points for visitors, returning residents and commercial. The police have promised to round up all the criminal elements operating from the border including illegal vendors, beggars, conmen and touts,” said the official.
The department of immigration is said to be working on a plan to deploy 30 more workers to Beitbridge to address manpower shortages.
At present there are 55 employees against a requirement of 80.
Delays on the import side have also been attributed to Zimra’s failure to deploy adequately with about 273 workers carrying out a task of 336 workers.
On Wednesday afternoon the parking bays around the main customs and immigration building had been cleared with only South Africa bound travellers allowed to park their vehicles.
Workers from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development were seen working on the new routes for heavy vehicles on the departure side where roads are badly damaged.
Searches have also been compressed on the imports side where travellers have been going through almost 13 check points manned by various arms of government including the police, Zimra, port health, agriculture, EMA and veterinary services.
Queues have become minimal at the Zimra cash counters since motorists are now paying for both bridge and road access fees to Zinara on one counter.
When the government took over the New Limpopo Bridge from a private company recently, Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Dr Obert Mpofu said part of the bridge toll fees will be channelled towards the Beitbridge Bridge Fund.
He said the fund would be used to develop key infrastructure within the border post and fund some key capital projects such as the road network in Beitbridge Town.
Online Reporter