Zim border posts lack capacity for explosives clearance

14 Dec, 2014 - 00:12 0 Views

The Sunday News

ZIMBABWE’s border posts are sitting on a time bomb amid revelations that they do not have a special facility to clear trucks that carry explosive goods.
In an interview, president of the Clearing and Forwarding Association of Southern Africa, Mr Joseph Musariri said trucks carrying dangerous chemicals and intending to clear their goods at border posts were going through the same bureaucratic clearance procedures with those carrying ordinary goods.

He said such an arrangement was improper as the trucks should be away from each other to avoid accidents.

“In Zimbabwe there are no precautionary measures to ensure that traffic carrying dangerous cargo such as fuel and chemicals are quickly cleared at the border posts. We are actually sitting on a time bomb,” said Mr Musariri.

He said traffic carrying dangerous goods should be given special treatment and be cleared quickly to avoid accidents such as the one that took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) late last month.

In the tragic incident, about four drivers and 48 trucks carrying goods worth millions of dollars were burnt down while dozens of people were injured in a huge fire that occurred on the border between the DRC and Zambia.

The conflagration was reportedly caused by a collision between two trucks, which led to a leak from the tank of one of the two vehicles filled with gasoline.

Reports say the fuel then caught fire due to contact with wood stoves used by other drivers in a nearby kitchen.

“Before the Lubumbashi disaster, we had warned the authorities several times that traffic with explosives should be given special arrangement but they never responded to our warning until the disaster struck,” said Mr Musariri.

He challenged Government to urgently give special treatment to cargo carrying dangerous goods and avoid such accidents.

“At our borders, there are no measures in place to try and make sure that we decongest the border posts. The trucks with chemicals must clearly be demarcated as express cargo and should be away from other trucks and Zimbabwe is not doing that,” he said.

He said Zambia was one of the few countries in the Southern Africa which had put precautionary safety measures at its ports of entry.

He said in Zambia trucks carrying dangerous goods are parked about 5-10 km away from the rest of others while at the border posts to avoid accidents.

Meanwhile, Mr Musariri also bemoaned the delays that transporters go through while clearing goods at the country’s border posts, especially at Beitbridge.

“Even if there are pre-clearance facilities; there are still bottle necks that are still there. Zimra does not have enough staff to quickly carry out physical checks and we really need more clearing agents especially in the festive seasons,” he said.

“We also need to streamline the operations at our border posts, particularly those carrying empty trucks. There are too many unnecessary procedures being done even on empty trucks,” said Mr Musariri.

In his 2015 budget presentation, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa also confirmed the congestion at the country’s border posts.

He said in the past years the country had witnessed a proliferation of Government agents at ports of entry, leading to congestion and unnecessary delays of movement of travellers and cargo at ports of entry.

He said these agencies include the Environmental Management Agency, the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation & Rural Development, the Veterinary Department, Plant Inspectorate, the National Bio-Technology Authority, the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration and Port Health.

“In order to facilitate fast clearance of cargo, movement of travellers and also enhance revenue collection, thereby reducing the cost of doing business, I propose to introduce an Electronic Single Window Facility which entails coordination and cooperation among all agencies involved in regulatory requirements at the ports of entry.  Under the Single Window Facility, all fees and charges will be collected by the Zimra,” said minister Chinamasa.

He said the facility would be effective during the second quarter of 2015.
The situation at Beitbridge border post, the busiest inland port in Southern Africa, is characterised by long queues and this has seriously affected the flow of business.

According to the official reports the border post handles about 9 000 travellers from across the region into South Africa in a single ordinary day.

The figure sometimes soars up to over 25 000 during holidays.
In 2012, a Zimbabwe-South Africa Joint Commission also expressed concern at the high level of congestion at the Beitbridge post.

The Zimbabwe-South Africa Joint Commission, which saw several Government ministries and departments participating, called for the quick establishment of a One Stop Border post at Beitbridge to facilitate the quick flow of trade not only between the two countries but in the continent as a whole.

Zimbabwe introduced the one-stop border concept at Chirundu, a border post shared with Zambia that has created many benefits such as reduced supply chain transaction costs, increased Government revenues, and reduced duplication of efforts.

The one-stop border has brought the transit time from about seven days to a matter of less than a day.

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