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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
The Governments of Zimbabwe and South Africa are engaging to find a lasting solution to the current chaos at Beitbridge Border Post where travellers are spending more than 48 hours to access either country, an official has said.
The long delays at the border have since claimed the life of a Zimbabwean woman who collapsed and died in an Eagleliner bus while waiting to be cleared out of South Africa on Tuesday afternoon.
The woman is believed to have succumbed of fatigue after spending close to 36 hours in the bus at the border.
While engagement between Harare and Pretoria is ongoing, Limpopo’s Provincial Government has sent a delegation led by the director of Traffic and Community Safety, Mr Allen Matsila to try and address the chaos at the border.
Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to South Africa, Mr David Hamadziripi, said they were hopeful the movement of traffic would soon improve at the border.
“The two Governments are in contact with a view to finding a sustainable solution to the delays currently being experienced by travellers at Beitbridge Border Post.
“It is our expectation that the results of these efforts will be discernible very soon,” said the Ambassador.
According to Limpopo’s Department of Transport spokesperson, Mr Matome Moremi, the team was already hard at work on the ground de-congesting the N1 highway to push the clearance of northbound traffic.
“A high-level team of traffic officers led by Mr Matsila is in Beitbridge and is being assisted by the South Africa Police Services,” he said.
“What we are doing is the separation of traffic into heavy and light vehicles.
These light vehicles are being directed to a holding place at the Musina Showgrounds as soon as they arrive in Musina. From there are being cleared into the border post in batches”.
Mr Moremi said the de-congestion plan has started paying dividends since they had managed to clear the gridlock on the 12km stretch leading to the border post. He said commercial trucks were being processed separately considering they will be transporting essential cargo. The official said the long queues were a result of the curfew in force between 10pm and 6am in line with Covid-19 containment protocols.
However, by the end of the day yesterday, the movement of traffic had gradually improved after border authorities partially eased the curfew regulations and cleared traffic going to either country.
A Zimbabwean border official said: “There is a need to lobby both Governments to relax the curfew regulations at the border, which is resulting in serious congestion on northbound traffic.”
Another official said Zimbabwe should urgently set up an alternative Covid-19 testing point for Beitbridge residents and commercial truck drivers whose clearance certificates are expiring before reaching the Port of Entry.
“As it stands, South Africa is struggling to clear everyone entering their country since its mobile laboratory only operates between 10am and 3pm from one central point.
“This is not sustainable. We will end up getting more infections or an outbreak of water-borne diseases among the truckers” said the official.
An average of 6 500 travellers, 1 200 commercial trucks and 2 500 light vehicles are passing through the border daily, with truckers being the hardest hit since they started experiencing long delays in the past three weeks.
The volume of traffic at Chirundu Border Post has doubled over the past two days with Kariba also recording increased traffic of mostly day trippers going to watch the Kariba Dam.
Chirundu Border Post, which had been handling between 400 and 500 travellers per day, saw numbers doubling to an average of over 1 000 people in the last two days.
While the majority of travellers passing through the one-stop border post are truck drivers, there has been a significant increase in individual travellers.
Regional immigration officer Mr Joshua Chibundu confirmed that traffic picked up in the past two days.
“Looking at statistics, there has been a marked increase in the number of people being cleared at Chirundu Border Post with an average of more than 1 000 people per day in the last two days,” said Mr Chibundu.
“Kariba has also seen a significant increase in the number of people being cleared. There is a high number of people passing through the border to walk on the dam as tourists.”
Authorities have managed to handle the increased traffic flow resulting in little or no congestion.
Chirundu is the second busiest port for north-south bound traffic and a key trade facilitation point in the Sadc region.
Meanwhile, shoppers thronged supermarkets in Harare and other centres countrywide as they sought to beat the last minute rush associated with Christmas eve.
The trend is expected to continue today as more people complete their Christmas in a year disposable incomes have improved and prices stabilised.
At major bus stations such as Mbare Musika and other passenger pick up points such as Sam Nujoma Street (starting from Herbert Chitepo Avenue going northwards) where travellers to Mashonaland Central Province get transport, people could be seen jostling for transport, with private motorists recording brisk business.
There were hundreds of people at Robert Mugabe Road and Fifth Street, outside Roadport bus terminus, where travellers to parts of Mashonaland East and Manicaland Provinces waited for transport.
Chinhoyi was a hive of shopping activity with people were making last minute purchase for Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
Chinhoyi, Mashonaland West’s provincial capital, provides supermarkets, banks and farming implements for the surrounding communities of Mhangura, Murombedzi, Banket, Raffingora and Makonde among other places.
Most supermarkets in the town including two of the biggest, OK Zimbabwe and TM Pick n’ Pay were fully packed.
“Unlike last seasons, transport charges are relatively cheap. Pirate transporters are not charging exorbitant fares and this has been made possible by the introduction of Zupco buses by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Second Republic,” said Mr Master Madzviti of Makonde.
At Gadzema rank, travellers were happy with the fares that were being charged, but there was a high level of non-compliance with Covid-19 regulations, raising fears of a spike in cases of the pandemic.
Mashonaland West provincial medical director, Dr Gift Masoja said a ministerial task force had been activated to alert people on the need for compliance while acting police spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Ian Kohwera warned travellers against boarding unregistered vehicles to avoid robberies.
All was reported to have gone on well in Masvingo, Mashonaland Central and Manicaland provinces where people went about their business peacefully.
Online Reporter