Temporary Travel Documents for Zimbabweans to be phased out by Botswana

Botswana will phase out Zimbabwean Temporary Travel Documents (TTDs) with effect from Monday, an official said yesterday.

The assistant regional immigration officer-in-charge of the western region, based at Plumtree Border Post, Mr Nqobile Ncube, said their Botswana counterparts have officially notified them of the development.

"The Botswana Immigration Department has officially notified us that they will not be accepting the Zimbabwean TTDs as authentic travel documents starting from 1 April, which is Monday next week. Travellers will therefore have to use passports with effect from that day, said Mr Ncube.

"There is nothing much that we can do to reverse this decision because we have attempted to engage them but they have clearly indicated that they will be rejecting our TTDs and we cannot force them to do otherwise."

Mr Ncube said Botswana immigration officials did not give reasons for the development, although it is most likely that it was as a result of the computerisation programme at their offices.

"People should just take note of this new development as it will affect them," he said.

In 2010, South Africa also banned the use of emergency travel documents (ETDs) and other travel papers by countries in the Sadc region as the country wanted to align its immigration system with advanced security checks.

Following the development, hundreds of Zimbabwean travellers were turned back at the South African border.

Meanwhile, Mr Ncube said the Plumtree Border Post was getting overwhelmed by travellers as the number of people either entering or leaving the country keeps rising.

"Yesterday we recorded a slight increase in the number of travellers with about 4 000 being cleared either entering or leaving the country. On a normal day we clear an average of 1 500 travellers but by 4pm yesterday the number had increased," he said.

Mr Ncube said they expected the number to increase late yesterday and today as more people were expected to be travelling during the Easter Holiday.
He however, said they were ready to handle the situation.

"We have arranged for a full staff turnout during the Easter Holiday and as such we do not expect the number of travellers to exceed our working capacity. We will be using outside counters as extra clearing points to ensure that people are not stuck at the border," he said.

Mr Ncube said his office had engaged its Botswana counterparts to avoid a repeat of the Christmas and New Year's holidays when travellers spent long hours in queues waiting to be cleared at Ramokgwebana Border Post.

"We have been holding several meetings with officials from the Botswana side in the run up to the Easter Holiday to ensure that they are ready to handle the increase in the number of travellers being cleared.

"What I can say is that they have increased the capacity of their computers, the number of staff, clearance points and they have also upgraded their system.
"From our own assessment, we are confident that this time around they will be able to handle whatever traffic comes their way," he said.

Mr Ncube said although the number of travellers usually doubled or tripled during Easter Holidays, they were not anticipating the situation to be critical.
He said other people who were expected to flock into the border were school children as schools have closed.