Beitbridge Border Post gears up for festive season

By Mashudu Netsianda THE Principal Director of Immigration Mr Clemence Masango on Monday said his department has already put in place mechanisms aimed at dealing with congestion at the Beitbridge Border Post during the festive season. He, however, expressed concern over the staff shortage to man the border. “We are aware that during this time of the year we get an increased volume of travellers including other nationals such as Zambians and Malawians using Beitbridge Border Post, resulting in pressure on our personnel and infrastructure,” said Mr Masango during a tour of the border post by the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Gorden Moyo. “We therefore need more officers as queues are unpredictable and as immigration we are doing our best to ensure smooth movement of travellers.” Mr Masango said the number of travellers entering the country was beginning to rise with 36 000 arrivals having been recorded between Friday and Sunday, while 22 000 were attended to on the departure side at the weekend. He also expressed concern over the vandalism of the perimeter fence, a development that resulted in uncontrolled entry into the border area. “You will note that because of the vandalised fence we are getting touts and bogus clearing agents finding their way to the customs yard where they are conning travellers,” said Mr Masango. The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) regional manager, Ms Angela Mashiri, said as a decongestion strategy, they started relocating impounded vehicles from the customs yard to an area outside the border to create parking space for travellers during the festive season. She said they received an average of 150 imported cars mostly from Japan everyday, with the majority of owners failing to pay customs duty on time resulting in the vehicles being impounded and end up congesting the border area. Mrs Mashiri also expressed concern over the shortage of staff saying they were expecting 15 more from other stations to beef up personnel at Beitbridge Border Post. Zimra has a staff complement of 121 officers, which have been divided into five shifts. Minister Moyo was touring Beitbridge border post to assess the preparedness by border officials in anticipation of an increase in the number of travellers ahead of the festive season. He said the Government was concerned about congestion at Beitbridge Border Post during the festive season, adding that there was a need to come up with strategies aimed at easing congestion. “The Government is concerned about practical realities at Beitbridge Border Post characterised by congestion, poor infrastructure and inadequate staff and therefore we are keen to seeing a change and have a different picture during the festive season. In fact, we are saying there is need to come up with effective and workable strategies to ensure a smooth movement of travellers which essentially is why I am here to meet stakeholders so that we jointly explore ways to facilitate the quick clearance of traffic and people,” he said. The minister said there was need to come up with a long-term plan to address the challenges bedevilling Beitbridge Border Post. He added that they were also exploring avenues such as the reopening of the Old Limpopo Bridge to southward bound traffic to ease congestion during the festive season. “We are beginning to think strategically about how we can make Zimbabwe benefit from next year’s World Cup in South Africa since our country is strategically located. We therefore need to come up with a long term strategy to address the many challenges at Beitbridge Border Post and we are also looking at cross cutting issues that need to be addressed as a matter of urgency,” he said. Minister Moyo highlighted the issue of infrastructure, sanitation and staff shortage to help speed up clearance of travellers, as major challenges. “We are saying the processing of traffic especially commercial trucks carrying cargo and buses should be speeded up to avoid unnecessary delays and congestion. We are looking at facilities in order to know how well they are able to handle the huge influx of travellers during the festive season,” he said. “In fact this visit is aimed at capturing the essence of the real situation on the ground in line with the recommendations of the Council of Ministers.”  Publisher: www.chronicle.co.zw/16/12/09