Traffic continues to surge at transformed border

Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau

NEARLY half-a-million travellers passed through Beitbridge Border Post between December and New Year’s Day as more people now opt to use the modernised port of entry to access Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Beitbridge-border-post

Beitbridge is one of the busiest border posts in Africa, which not only connects Zimbabwe and South Africa but also serves as the transit point for the majority of north-south trade in Southern Africa.

President Mnangagwa recently commissioned some of the completed works under the US$300 million Beitbridge Border Post modernisation and upgrade project.

President Mnangagwa

It is one of the milestone projects being undertaken by the Second Republic to enhance the ease of doing business and trade facilitation for the whole region.

The modernisation of the Beitbridge Border Post is in line with Vision 2030, which seeks to attain an upper middle-income economy. The upgrading and modernisation of Beitbridge Border Post will also speed up the implementation of the One-Stop Border Post (OSBP) concept between South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The final phase of the Beitbridge Border Post modernisation and upgrade is expected to be completed in June.

The project is being implemented through a public-private partnership arrangement with ZimBorders Consortium and is the biggest investment for any city so far in the country.

Border authorities said a total of 472 220 travellers used Beitbridge Border Post between December 1 last year and New Year’s Day.

Due to chaos and congestion at Beitbridge Border Post, especially during peak periods, some travellers shunned the port of entry preferring to use longer routes by going via Mozambique and Botswana.

New terminals were built for each vehicle category including new parking areas and feeder roads. New cargo scanning equipment has been installed to allow for faster inspection of goods and detection of fraud, contraband and potential threats such as explosives and radioactive materials, among others.

Manual unloading and inspection have been reduced following the installation of a new ICT system, which allows an automated queuing and payment system for truckers

The regional immigration officer-in-charge of Beitbridge Mr Joshua Chibundu said since the modernisation of the border post, there has been a steady increase in terms of traffic following the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions and the creation of more service points.

“We have been processing a high volume of travellers through this border and between 1 December last year and 1 January we handled a total 472 220 travellers on both entry and exit sides, and these include 189 037 departures and 283 183 arrivals,” he said.

“We deployed enough manpower to handle the surge in travellers as well as enforce compliance.”

Mr Chibundu said in the last 30 days they intercepted 2 495 people for violating immigration laws.

Those who were rounded up include border jumpers, touts, illegal vendors, and bogus immigration officials operating as organised syndicates to swindle travellers of their monies.

“We also want to advise travellers to avoid using third parties to process their clearance at the immigration counters. Travellers are advised that we do not have agents because most of these middlemen con travellers under the guise of assisting them with immigration formalities,” said Mr Chibundu.

He said the situation has returned to normalcy following a busy festive season with border officials handling an average of about 20 000 people daily.

Mr Chibundu said on Monday they cleared 14 500 people mostly school children returning home from holidays in South Africa.

“These included 5 725 on the entry side and 8 775 on the exit side. However, the numbers are dwindling significantly from an average of 20 000 to 14 000, which translates to a 28 percent decrease from the normal festive period,” he said.

Beitbridge Border Post handles over 7 million travellers annually while 2 000 commercial trucks, over 1 000 light vehicles and 100 buses pass through the port of entry daily.