Chronicle Editor
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
SOUTH Africa’s Border Management Authority (BMA) has adopted the traffic separation model to ensure the speedy flow of cargo and human traffic at the Beitbridge Border Post.
The model is being used temporarily by SA but Zimbabwe has permanently separated traffic and automated its systems as part of the US$300 million Beitbridge transformation project.
BMA head, Dr Mike Masiapato said the separation has become a game changer, which had enhanced efficiency systems at the two countries’ busiest port of entry.
“As the Border Management Authority, the implementation of the festive season traffic plan is underway as planned. We have separated various processing points within the port of entry. The Manica bypass has been allocated to light vehicles while pedestrians and those in buses are being cleared at the main port building and cargo is being processed separately with the help of the South African Revenue Services (SARS),” he said.
Dr Masiapato said everything was going according to plan and they expected numbers to increase in the next few days.
He said they have been witnessing an increase in arrivals from New Year’s Day where they cleared 10 000 entries. The figures have risen to around 20 000 travellers daily. Between January 1 and January 7, Dr Masiapato said they cleared 119 000 arrivals.
“Over and above that number of people we have facilitated, we have been able to refuse entry to 480 travellers without valid documents. Some were intercepted along the border line where the border guards and soldiers are deployed,” he said.
Travellers already are toasting to efficiency systems on the Zimbabwe side where a freight terminal, bus terminal, pedestrian and light vehicle terminal have been built permanently to offer customised services.
People are spending less than 30 minutes to complete the border processes depending on the availability of documents and compliance with border processes.
The facility was upgraded by the Government under a private- public partnership arrangement with the Zimborders Consortium.
“As of today (yesterday) traffic has now subsided, including the south bound return traffic, truck volumes are still quite low, which is expected and normal for the time of the year post holiday,” said Zimborders Consortium chief executive officer, Mr Francois Diedrechsen.
It is understood that more travellers from Zimbabwe and countries north of the Zambezi River continue to use the newly transformed Beitbridge Border Post.
Beitbridge is used by Malawians, Congolese, Angolans, Tanzanians, Zambians and Zimbabweans to access SA.
It is estimated that the facility carries over seven million travellers annually.
In previous years the lack of appropriate infrastructure and non-automation at Beitbridge Border Post
created a bottleneck to the efficient movement of cargo and people.
Statistics from the Department of Immigration show that in December last year, a total of 525 289 travellers used the Beitbridge Border Post compared to 478 306 who passed through the same port in 2022.
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