Online Reporter
Rutendo Nyeve, [email protected]
VICE-PRESIDENT Kembo Mohadi has reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to modernising the Victoria Falls Border Post, describing it as a critical gateway for regional trade that requires urgent decongestion and digital transformation.
During a tour of the facility yesterday, VP Mohadi conducted an on-the-pot review of recent systems upgrades and met frontline staff to hear first-hand the challenges affecting efficiency at one of the country’s busiest ports of entry.
The visit, which included a delegation of senior Government ministers, focused on assessing operations following the border’s recent transition to a 24-hour facility.
While acknowledging progress to date, VP Mohadi noted that rising traffic volumes, particularly from haulage trucks, require further intervention.
“This is our border with Zambia and it’s a gateway to Central Africa and East Africa. So, it is very important that we come and see exactly what is happening and also try to find out what challenges they are having at the border. As you rightly say that it has now been updated to a 24-hour border post and they were just telling me that sometimes there’s congestion, a lot of congestion especially from the haulage trucks. So, we need to spruce it up a little bit so that we can accommodate all this,” said VP Mohadi.
VP Mohadi said the border’s location between the Victoria Falls rainforest and the Batoka Gorge presents significant physical constraints to expansion. However, he emphasised that technology will be central to the solution.
“As you see, you will agree with me that behind you is the rainforest and behind me is the gorge, so the area for expansion is very limited. So we have to sit down and plan and how we can renovate so that it becomes more respectable like how we would want to see. It is an old border post and it has served us quite a lot. In fact, this bridge is one of the four or three bridges, which were built on the Albert Beit trust. So, we have come here to see how they are operating,” he said.
To tackle congestion, VP Mohadi said the Government is prioritising the digitalisation of services, including advanced online border management systems. Key among the planned upgrades is the transformation of truck handling.
“In terms of modernisation, I think we are going to also going to modernise the truck stop. It is going to be electronic and digital,” he confirmed.
He said this would mark a shift to a seamless, paperless system aimed at significantly reducing turnaround times for commercial traffic.
Beyond technology, the Vice-President highlighted staff welfare as critical to service delivery.
“They have told us we are going to attend to them, and I’m not going to tell you what the challenge is. But one thing that is actually important, which comes out of it is accommodation for us. They don’t have that big accommodation.
Most of them live in rented places. We need as many to come out with the schemes where we are going to put up some accommodation for our offices. It’s paramount. We cannot expect someone to discharge the maximum when she or he conducts things to go forward. So, that is what we are going to be looking at.”
The Second Republic under President Mnangagwa has committed to ensuring Zimbabwe’s ports of entry are efficient, modern and capable of driving the country’s vision of an upper-middle- income economy by 2030.
