Embassy to regulate movement of SA buses

Thupeyo Muleya

Beitbridge Bureau

The movement of cross-border buses bringing Zimbabweans home from South Africa will once again be regulated by the country’s embassy in Pretoria, in line with previous lockdown protocols to minimise delays now being experienced at Beitbridge Border Post.

The return to the embassy arrangement came following a four-day impasse at the border post between Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (zimra) and bus operators, with the revenue collector unable to clear unexpected bus passengers through customs.

Some Zimbabweans who returned from South Africa in buses on Sunday were detained for 11 hours at the border post, as zimra officials were refusing to clear them.

The revenue authority was arguing that they were not clearing cross border buses yet and that some of the buses were being used to transport commercial cargo rather than just returnees and their luggage.

As a result of the chaos at the border, officials from zimra, the Immigration Department and the Zimbabwe Embassy in South Africa held a virtual meeting to resolve operational issues.

Zimbabwe’s consul-general in Johannesburg, Mrs Melody Chaurura confirmed the latest position.

“We have heard of challenges regarding the re-entry of Zimbabweans into our country through Beitbridge due to a number of issues to do with customs,” she said.

“We then held consultations (on Wednesday) with border stakeholders to understand their challenges and to see how best we can make the process seamless for both our nationals and border agencies.

“As a result, we then came up with the idea of reverting to the lockdown operational procedures where the movement of buses would be regulated by the embassy.”

Mrs Chaurura said all buses transporting Zimbabweans will have to be cleared by the embassy, which will indicate the number of passengers that they would carry and which days to travel.

This, she said, will address issues of planning and predictability, considering that the buses were arriving at the border in dozens, creating an operational challenge to enforce Covid-19 related border protocols.

Mrs Chaurura said they were notifying the cross border bus operators on the new regulations.