‘Over 700 000 use Beitbridge during festive season’

Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau

MORE than 700 000 people accessed the country through Beitbridge Border Post during the just-ended festive season, where the border efficiency and management systems has relatively improved in comparison to the last three years.

Official figures from the Department of Immigration show that a total of 375 956 travellers inclusive of returning residents and tourists entered the country from South Africa between December 5, 2019 and January 5 this year.

During the same period 332 223 people travelled to South Africa via Sadc’s busiest inland port of entry.

The assistant regional immigration officer in charge of Beitbridge, Mr Nqobile Ncube said at peak periods 24 000 people were cleared and 14 000 attended to off peak daily.

These, he said, included entries and departures.

The surge in entries through Beitbridge in the last three years is attributed to the confidence travellers have developed with the level of efficiency and organisation among border authorities.

“Though the movement of travellers increased on the arrivals side, we had the situation under control. We employed the border efficiency management system that harmonised operations with local and South African officials to ensure that travellers spent the shortest possible time at the border.

“A turnaround plan has been successfully implemented and it brought on board all stakeholders including traffic sections from ZRP and Beitbridge Municipality to avoid the problem of traffic jams in Beitbridge town,” said Mr Ncube.

He said some of the measures employed to ease the flow of traffic include the re-organisation of the border, where traffic is separated into pedestrians, motorists, buses, commercial and visitors.

Adequate staff, he added, was deployed to deal with increased human and vehicular traffic during the festive season.

The official said there was an upsurge in South Africa-bound traffic between 4 and 6 January but the situation was returning to normal.

“Manpower deployment remains the same as in pre-Christmas period with all officers on hand and all forms of off and leave days cancelled,” said Mr Ncube.

“You will also note that, Beitbridge is adequately staffed as per the Departmental Detailed Establishment Table.

“However, the major challenge was people leaving enmasse between 4 and 6 January but we managed to handle increased levels working in conjunction with our South African counterparts.

“Major movement is over and traffic flows are almost back to normal but we are gearing up for the back to school traffic as both countries’ schools seem to be opening same week.”

The immigration official encouraged people to embrace timely travelling and to ensure they carry the correct documentation.

Mr Ncube said a Regional Compliance and Enforcement unit had been deployed on the ground to curb rent-seeking, child smuggling and border jumping.

He said the initiative had led to the reduction in cases of child smuggling.