adminWhen Chronicle visited both the Zimbabwean and South African sides of the border yesterday afternoon there were long winding queues of cars.
On the Zimbabwean side queues were stretching for about three kilometres and spilling over into the South Africa side as they waited to be cleared by customs and immigration officials on the departure side.
The assistant regional immigration manager in charge of Beitbridge Border Post, Mr Charles Gwede said the volume of both human and vehicular traffic was on the increase on exit sides.
“We continue to witness an upsurge in the volume of traffic as the number of people, mostly Zimbabweans working in South Africa, have started trooping back following the end of the festive season,” he said.
Mr Gwede attributed the long queues of traffic to failure by their South African counterparts to absorb pressure on their side.
“The long winding queue of vehicles is due to pressure on the South African side as their border facility is failing to accommodate the huge volume of traffic that we would have cleared on our side.
“We are therefore only allowing traffic to enter the border in small batches so that we are able to reduce congestion,” he said.
Beitbridge Border Post last year recorded a sharp increase in the number of travellers who passed through during the festive period.
Most of the travellers were Zimbabweans working in South Africa who had visited their families and relatives back home to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays.
According to immigration statistics 51 601 people passed through the port of entry between Christmas Day and 28 December last year, a sharp increase compared to 18 222 during the same period in 2010.
In separate interviews, travellers said they were spending long hours in the queue, particularly on the South African side.
“The queues on the South African side are moving at a snail’s pace and I have been in the queue for four hours now and this is so terrifying considering that I also have a long journey to Cape Town,” said Ms Soneni Mlotshwa.
Another injiva, Mr Jacob Ndlovu, who is based in Johannesburg, echoed Ms Mlotshwa’s sentiments: “Although there are long queues on the Zimbabwean side, officials are faster in clearing travellers unlike on the South African side where we are forced to spend several hours.
“We urge both Zimbabwean and South African border authorities to address this problem as a matter of urgency.”
Beitbridge is 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.
Mr Gwede said in an effort to speed up the clearance of travellers, they had suspended leave and off-days for their staff between 15 December and today.
The department has a staff complement of 40 immigration officers and 15 support staff.
Online Reporter