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When implemented the one-stop border post would see local immigration and customs officers being sent to the South African side of the border.
Travellers from Zimbabwe would no longer need to stop until they reach the South African side where both South African and Zimbabwean officers would serve them.
Similarly South African officials would also man counters on the Zimbabwean side.
Sadc is going to partly fund the Beitbridge One-Stop Border, a pilot project under the North-South Corridor.
A similar project has already been established at Chirundu Border Post under the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).
Minister Biti said there was need to upgrade the infrastructure at Beitbridge Border Post.
“We need to first transform Beitbridge Border Post into a world class port of entry and we want to put modern infrastructure because the one we have now is failing to cope with huge volumes of traffic particularly during the peak period when the border post would be extremely busy like now,” he said.
Minister Biti said the Government had since engaged a new company to upgrade the border post following failure by Southern Africa Infrastructure Company (SAIC) to implement the project.
“We had given SAIC a contract so that they upgrade Beitbridge Border Post within a period of 14 months, but the company failed to do so and we have cancelled the contract, which was signed in August last year.
“We have since engaged another firm, which will start work next year,” he said.
Ministers Biti and Mohadi, who were in Beitbridge to assess the situation at the border ahead of the festive period, expressed satisfaction with the way immigration and Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) officials were handling travellers.
“We toured Beitbridge Border Post to assess the situation on the ground and in our view it was self-evident that the situation has tremendously improved compared to previous years.
“We would like to commend immigration and Zimra officials for their efforts despite the many challenges they are facing,” said Minister Biti.
He, however, attributed delays at Beitbridge Border Post to inadequate staff to man the border post and poor infrastructure.
Zimra needs an extra staff complement of at least 45 officers to effectively man the border post, which is reported to be the busiest inland port of entry in sub-Saharan Africa.
On the issue of Zimra’s newly installed Asycuda 3 computer system, which customs clearing agents have on numerous occasions complained about arguing that it is slow and caused delays, Minister Biti defended the system, saying it was faster than the previous Asycuda World.
“The new Asycuda 3 system is very efficient and faster than the previous one. In fact, we have since noted that most of the clearing agents do not have the facilities to handle the data and they have themselves to blame for the delays in processing their clients,” he said.
Online Reporter