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“Many of our people staying and working in South Africa are now documented after they acquired permits during the regularisation exercise in that country hence they could now travel freely, which is why this year they came in large numbers compared to the previous years,” he said.
The South African government embarked on the process of documenting Zimbabweans illegally staying in that country between 5 May 2009 and 31 July this year, during which over 275 000 applications from Zimbabweans were processed while several others were turned down and some are still pending.
Mr Gwede said more travellers were still coming ahead of the New Year holidays with statistics indicating that 12 353 people, mostly injiva, arrived in the country through Beitbridge on Tuesday.
“Some Zimbabweans are still coming in and on Monday we processed several buses on the entry side.”
Beitbridge is reported to be the busiest inland port of entry in sub-Saharan Africa, which handles a huge volume of traffic mostly commercial vehicles including those destined for neighbouring countries such as Zambia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo passing through daily.
On average the border handles about 10 000 travellers daily with the figures going up during the peak period such as the festive season.
Beitbridge Border Post was, however, designed to cater for only 4 000 travellers at any given time.
“When we are not busy the normal traffic flow of buses is usually 60 but during the peak period we get about 300 buses passing through on a daily basis. The infrastructure at the border has a capacity to handle 4 000 travellers at any given time which is why during the peak period like now, travellers encounter delays due to congestion worsened by shortage of staff,” Mr Gwede said.
The department has a staff complement of 40 immigration officers and 15 support staff.
As a decongestion strategy, the Department of Immigration has also created additional counters where travellers can also utilise the cubicles situated outside the immigration hall.
Mr Gwede said they suspended leave and off-days for their staff in a bid to speed up the clearance of travellers during the festive period.
Online Reporter