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as travellers, mostly Zimbabweans working in South Africa, commonly known as injiva, started flocking back home for the festive season.
When Chronicle visited the border post yesterday, there were long winding queues of travellers awaiting both customs and immigration clearance.
Immigration guards with the help of police officers could also be seen controlling the queues on the entry side.
However, on the departure side, immigration officers manning the counters were less busy with statistics showing that 16 782 people left the country through Beitbridge Border Post between Friday and Sunday compared to 48 011 on the entry side during the same period.
The assistant regional immigration manager-in-charge of Beitbridge Border Post, Mr Charles Gwede, said they recorded an increase in the volume of both human and vehicular traffic at the weekend.
“We have started witnessing a sharp increase in the number of travellers at the border since last week during which we handled a total of 48 011 travellers between Friday and Sunday. We anticipate the movement and volume of traffic to increase as we approach the Christmas holiday,” he said.
The highest number of travellers who passed through Beitbridge was recorded on Sunday when 24 287 travellers used the border post, 18 294 on the entry side and 5 993 on the departure section.
Mr Gwede said most travellers entering the country were Zimbabweans working in South Africa coming home ahead of Christmas.
“Most of the people we are handling on the entry side are Zimbabweans working in South Africa coming back home for Christmas. We also handle other nationalities such as Malawians and Zambians who are using our border post on transit to their countries,” he said.
Mr Gwede said they expected to get more officers today from other less busy stations to beef up the local staff.
“Although we had planned for the festive period, we never anticipated such an influx. The movement has surpassed our expectations and we have since requested for more officers and we are expecting them tomorrow so that we are able to speed up the clearance process at the border,” he said.
In separate interviews, travellers said they also spent several hours in the queue on the South African side awaiting clearance.
“Zimbabwean immigration officers are doing their best to quicken the clearance process unlike on the South Africa side where we spent several hours in the queue. We are also subjected to further delays at the
Zimra search bay,” said Ms Monica Dlodlo of Pumula in Bulawayo.
Another injiva, Mr Lennox Tshuma who is based in Berea, Johannesburg, echoed Ms Dlodlo’s sentiments: “The queues are moving at a snail’s pace, particularly on the South African side, but here it’s better save for delays caused by unnecessary searches by Zimra officers.”
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 post handles about 10 000 travellers daily with the figures going up during the peak period such as the festive season.
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 had since suspended leave and off-days for their staff in a move aimed at speeding up the clearance of travellers during the festive period.
“As part of our decongestion drive, we have re-arranged our shifts to ensure that we have more officers per shift to effectively manage the queues and speed up the clearance process,” he said.
The department has a staff complement of 40 immigration officers and 15 support staff.
Mr Gwede said they had also tightened security at the border by erecting a perimeter fence to deter touts and bogus clearing agents from accessing the border area.
In the past, there was uncontrolled entry into the border area resulting in touts and bogus clearing agents finding their way into the customs yard where they would swindle unsuspecting travellers of their money under the guise of offering assistance.
Online Reporter