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GOVERNMENT has been urged to expand the infrastructure at Beitbridge border post as the existing facilities were stifling operations at the country’s busiest port of entry.
The Commandant of National Defence College Air Vice Marshal Michael Moyo made the remarks last week during a tour of the facility with students from the NDC who were on a countrywide domestic tour of economic and social security study.
Beitbridge border post is part of the north south corridor where cargo to East Africa, Sadc and Comesa countries pass through.
“We are calling on the government to expand the infrastructure at Beitbridge border post and increase on manpower deployment to unlock the true values of a border post,” he said.
“We also need to come up with ways to eradicate intrusive leakages that appear to be apparent at Beitbridge border post and the boundary line.”
The border posts, he said, played a very critical role in terms of social, economic and security aspects of the country.
Air Vice Marshal Moyo also noted with concern the delays in traffic movement which he said impacted negatively on international trade.
“We are also advising the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) and the department of immigration to speed up the clearance of both human and vehicular traffic.
“Unnecessary congestion breeds room for corruption and other criminal vices,” he said.
He said they would incorporate some of their findings during the tour into their syllabus at the NDC.
Air Vice Marshall Moyo said they had also toured Bindura, Kariba, Midlands, Matopo, and Gwanda on a similar mission.
He said there was a strong need to capitalise and support Zimra operations at all ports of entries since the organisation controlled Zimbabwe’s revenue cash cow.
Speaking during the same tour Zimra’s regional manager for Beitbridge Mr Adrian Suarez said they were collecting an average of US$50 million per month.
He said their main challenges were an acute manpower and accommodation shortages and the rampant smuggling of cigarettes (export) and clothing items (imports).
Mr Suarez added that the parastatal had a staff complement of 282 against a requirement of 360 for them to operate at full strength.
“We are one of the busiest ports of entry but due to staff and accommodation shortages we are overstrained,” said Mr Suarez.
“We are clearing an average of 170 000 travellers, 25 000 private cars, 2 100 buses, 15 000 trucks going either side of the border on monthly basis,” he said.
“Another challenge we have here is limited office space but we have since made recommendations to our head office and are very hopeful that a solution will be found soon.”
Zimra, he said, was working with other security agents in carrying out joint border patrols around smuggling hot spots on regular basis.
He added that they had also created and anti-smuggling team which had a canine section to detect the smuggling of drugs.
Online Reporter