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THE volume of traffic has drastically increased at Beitbridge Border Post and people are spending an average of three hours to enter South Africa. Traffic surged on Sunday night as people resumed their normal business soon after the announcement of the harmonised election results. A week before the elections, the movement of people at the border had become relatively low with the immigration department assisting less than 6 000 on both sides of the border.
Long queues have become common on the South African border, while people are still being cleared efficiently on the Zimbabwean border.
Travellers who spoke to Harare Bureau said yesterday that they were spending more time on the south of the Limpopo as compared to the few minutes on the Zimbabwean border.
The assistant regional immigration officer in charge of Beitbridge Mr Charles Gwede said many people had suspended movement during the elections and had returned to their normal business.
“You will also note that this is a month-end and holiday where a lot of people cross the border for shopping and visiting in South Africa. We have also seen that people had minimised their movements during the pre-election period but they are now back to business as usual.
“The figures have been increasing though they are still less than those we handle during peak periods. As immigration we are equal to the task and we will review our operation in line with the movement trend,” said Mr Gwede.
Beitbridge Border Post is one of the busiest inland ports of entry in Sadc with a total of 25 000 travellers and over 2 500 private cars passing through per day during peak periods.
South Africa’s Border Operations and Coordinating Committee spokesman Mr Calvin Mulaudzi said in a telephone interview that they were witnessing long queues and that they were still manageable.
He said they were clearing less than 16 000 people per day at the border which was far below the peak figures of 18 000 and above.
“We are recording less than 9 000 arrivals and less than 7 000 on departures which is lower than our usual peak times. However, the situation is still under control and there is no need for travellers to panic.
“Actually we are happy that the trade relations between South Africa and Zimbabwe are strong and hence we have a team of consultants on the ground conducting a research on how best we can address some of the barriers to free movement and trade,” said Mr Mulaudzi.
He said early indications of their investigations revealed that the volume of traffic was high in the morning and evenings adding that they had started adjusting their shifts.
Mr Mulaudzi said in most cases the congestion was being caused by buses which all arrived at the border post during the same time despite operating on different time tables.
He said they were still engaging the association of cross border bus operators with a view to addressing some of the challenges.
Online Reporter