The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has said lack of security and surveillance at border posts was resulting in minerals such as gold being smuggled out of the country.
Zimbabwe is estimated to be losing at least US$100 million worth of gold every month from smuggling through the porous borders.
In a sideline interview during a tour of the border post by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development at Plumtree Border Post last week, Zimra Region 2 manager Mr Bekezela Majokojoko said there was a need for tighter security and surveillance at border posts to curb illicit gold smuggling.
“As Zimra our employees try and discourage or intercept any illicit smuggling of minerals like gold. During the tour we agreed that Zimra needs to improve especially in the case where we no longer have got scanners at Plumtree Border Post.
Currently Zimra has got baggage scanners but they do not have the scanner that scans big commercial trucks and if that commercial truck scanners can be reinstated it would go a long way in discouraging smuggling.”
Mr Majokojoko said the other issue contributing to the porousness of the border was that there was no fence or barrier that stops people from crossing into Botswana. He said it was suspected that the bulk of the smuggling of gold was happening through the undesignated points of entry.
“At the moment Zimra in liaison with other security stakeholders are doing border patrols in bid to curb this smuggling. But it will be helpful if the fences along the borderline and the roads that are used to patrol the borderlines are also improved which will make the patrolling better,” he said.
Mr Majokojoko noted that criminals and touts were also smuggling goods resulting in the tax collector’s revenue falling.
“Touts are a criminal element here. This affects the operations of Zimra because they waylay travellers and take goods out of the country before they are declared and cleared. So, this has had a serious impact on the revenues because this is tantamount to smuggling within the border post,” he said.
He said all stakeholders who are within the border post are accredited to be there and they carry the identification cards, as such, touts were illegal and an impediment to the smooth flow of traffic at the border post.
Mr Majokojoko said when people arrive at the border post, they should make sure that they follow proper channels and not engage anybody who cannot identify themselves.
“All border officials are either in uniform or have an identity card. Where they (people) are in doubt they should seek assistance either from a police officer or Zimra officer or an immigration officer who is in uniform and in possession of identity cards. They should not talk or give any of their goods to anybody no matter how he says he is going to help.”
After the tour, Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development chairman Edmond Mkaratigwa said traffic had increased at the Plumtree Border Post as security was being tightened at the Beitbridge Border Post.
“Matabeleland has got a number of gold mines dotted around the region, I must say it is endowed with a lot of gold discovered and undiscovered. We still have a lot of exploration to be done to ascertain and validate occurrences of minerals.
“With the proximity of the region to the Plumtree Border Post, traffic has increased tremendously this side ever since the Beitbridge Border Post became protected. So, it is one of the exit points we are actually more concerned about on leakages of minerals,” he said.
Mkaratigwa said most of the crossing points between Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries have become very porous.
Mkaratigwa said as the Portfolio Committee they wanted to understand the operations at the Plumtree Border Post and see what efforts were being made in terms of combating the criminal activties and mineral leakages.
“The major challenge I would say is the detection of minerals, gold in particular, we do not have scanners that can detect gold, yet we have huge potential of citizens that are crossing through the border with a possibility of the mineral being not detected.
“We are advocating for the procurement and installation of scanners including drones and ground patrol vehicles to ensure that the task is made easier. Once they will be able to detect gold if it passes by this crossing point, they will be able to apprehend the perpetrators,” he said.
Reports of people being arrested or intercepted while trying to smuggle gold out of the country have been on the increase of late.
