The Sunday News
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
BEITBRIDGE border agencies have made adequate deployments to handle an anticipated influx of traffic when most Zimbabweans start leaving for their work bases in Eswatini, Lesotho and South Africa at the end of the festive season.
Mordernised Beitbridge Border Post
The peak period has been set between 10 December and 10 January. Over 300 000 people used the transformed border post in December where the flow of traffic was flawless owing to the new efficiency systems which come with the US$300 million border transformation.
By the end of the day yesterday there was still low traffic at the border and activity is expected to heighten from today to Sunday. The Regional Immigration Officer-in-Charge of Beitbridge, Mr Joshua Chibundu said they were building on the success of the operations in December. He said they had turned their focus to departures at the end of the festive season.
“We have deployed adequate officers, and they are on the pedal to facilitate ease clearance for all travellers. In addition, we are working in liaison with local and South African counterparts to ensure a flawless process. All heads of departments here are open for clients when there is need to assistance in terms of clearance huddles. As always, travellers are encouraged to avoid intermediaries in our immigration clearances.”
He said they had also put in place stringent measures to curb irregular and unsafe migration between the two countries throughout the festive season. Immigration officials and other security guards have since the start of December been raiding an average of 200 people daily for violating immigration and other border related laws.
Among these are touts, hawkers, conmen, bogus customs agents and those using fake immigration and customs stamps to clear goods and people at the border.
Fake-immigration-stamp
Zimborders Consortium chief executive officer, Mr Francois Diedrechsen said his team was working with other border officials to facilitate a speedy flow of all forms of traffic.
Zimborders Consortium chief executive officer, Mr Francois Diedrechsen
“Zimborders and government agencies teams are all ready for the return traffic which together with the improved infrastructure and systems will help make sure the traffic flows as seamlessly as possible for the return traffic,” he said.
He said they have been handling averages of around 900 trucks, 180 buses,120 mini buses and 1800 cars per day through out the festive season. Zimborders Consortium in partnership with the government of Zimbabwe transformed the border post into three terminals-cargo, buses and the light vehicles under a 17 and half years’ build operate and transfer (BOT) arrangements.
Under this agreement, the consortium will manage, manage the border infrastructure before handing over it to the government at the end of the concession. The investor will recoup its money form the border user fees.
— @tupeyo
