admin
“As part of our decongestion drive we will scramble our shifts to maximise on manpower during the normal and extra peak days. In fact, starting from 15 December we expect a huge influx of travellers hence between 14 and 17 December, 21 and 24 December and 4 to 7 January, we will dissolve our shifts to ensure that we have more officers per shift who would effectively manage the queues and speed up the clearance process,” he said.
Mr Gwede said they were expecting 20 officers from other stations to beef up the local staff and ensure that all check points and counters were adequately manned.
Beitbridge Border Post has a staff complement of 47 officers and support staff.
“As a department we have since received an additional 20 officers to beef up our staff complement during the peak period. We have also suspended off and leave days for our staff in the run up to the festive period,” he said.
Mr Gwede said they had different systems in place to tackle congestion at the country’s busiest inland port of entry.
“As border stakeholders, we held several inter-border meetings with our South African counterparts to discuss and explore ways and strategies aimed at dealing with congestion during extra peak periods.
“We are saying there is a need to co-ordinate our activities and work together with South African authorities because the issue of congestion on either side has an impact on both sides of the border,” he said.
As part of their decongestion strategy, Mr Gwede said they would categorise travellers and create more counters to reduce queues.
He said they have since Monday been experiencing an increase in the number of travellers passing through the border.
According to statistics, immigration officials at the border handled 73 825 travellers between Monday and Wednesday on both arrival and departure sides.
Mr Gwede said they expected the number of travellers to increase over the weekend as Zimbabweans working in South Africa commonly known as injivas would be starting to flock home to spend Christmas with their families.
“We, however, anticipate that there would be a huge influx of travellers passing through the border post over the weekend largely because it would be a holiday in South Africa. Zimbabweans working there would also be coming home for the holiday.
“We are aware that as we approach the festive season, we normally get an increased volume of travellers coming from or heading to South Africa including other nationals such as Zambians and Malawians using Beitbridge Border Post, resulting in pressure on our personnel and therefore we are working on various strategies to ensure that we speed up the clearance of travellers.
“We will categories travellers and create more service points for visitors, motorists, buses and pedestrians as a way of trying to decongest the border and reduce queues. We want to make sure that people do not spend more than 30 minutes in the queues and those travelling in buses will be cleared according to the vehicle register to avoid unnecessary congestion,” said Mr Gwede.
He also urged other stakeholders to complement their efforts to ensure a smooth passage of travellers during the festive period.
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) spokesperson, Mr Canisio Mudzimu, said they would deploy relief officers to Beitbridge Border Post to beef up the local staff and help speed up the customs clearance process.
He said in an effort to reduce congestion, they would create additional space outside the traditional customs halls in anticipation of a huge volume of traffic.
“We are geared up in terms of facilitating the smooth movement of both human and vehicular traffic passing through Beitbridge Border Post during the festive season. We will deploy extra officers from less busy stations to Beitbridge Border Post during the festive period and to assist in border operations,” he said.
Beitbridge Border Post requires at least 247 customs officers to man it. The border post, which is the country’s busiest inland port of entry, has an establishment 141 officers. Mr Mudzimu said they would create separate traffic lanes to cater for tourists, returning residents, private motorists, commercial, buses and pedestrians to speed up the flow of traffic and reduce congestion.
Meanwhile, the officer commanding police in Beitbridge District, Chief Superintendent Lawrence Chinhengo, said they have since deployed more officers at the border to enhance security during the festive period.
“We have put mechanisms in place to fight crime and more officers have been deployed at the border post and other areas since our major thrust this festive season is to ensure that our travellers are safe,” he said.
Chief Supt Chinhengo said they were conducting several operations throughout the border town.
“We have noted that most criminal activities happen during this time of the year as criminals tend to capitalise on an increase in the movement of traffic at the border and commotion during peak periods to con travellers. We, however, continue to urge travellers to shun omagumaguma whenever they approach them under the guise of intending to assist them complete immigration and customs formalities as that is solely the duty of border officials and registered clearing agents,” he said.
Chief Supt Chinhengo said they had also tightened security at the border to deter touts and bogus clearing agents from accessing the border area.
Touts and bogus clearing agents continue to find their way into the customs yard where they would swindle unsuspecting travellers of their money under the guise of offering assistance. Beitbridge is the busiest inland port of entry in sub-Saharan Africa, which handles a huge volume of both human and vehicular traffic passing though daily. Commercial trucks destined for East and Central African countries such as Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia also pass through the border post.
On a normal day, the border handles between 6 000 and 8 000 travellers daily with the figures rising to 20 000 during the peak period.
Online Reporter