Beitbridge border officials ready for holiday travellers

AUTHORITIES at the Beitbridge and Plumtree border posts have started implementing a raft of measures to deal with increased traffic during the Easter holidays.

The Assistant Regional Immigration Officer in Charge of Beitbridge, Mr Notius Tarisai, said they had already agreed with their counterparts on the South African side of the border to harmonise operations between April 7 and April 19.

He said they were also anticipating more relief staff and had also suspended all off and leave days for their members of staff.

South Africa has deployed 60 more immigration officers at Beitbridge, while customs authorities are also expected to boost their staff between today and Friday next week.

"We will open up more service points outside the main immigration hall when the traffic increases," said Mr Tarisai.

Statistics show that during off peak period, 15 000 travellers are cleared daily and 30 000 are cleared during peak periods at Beitbridge border.

The figures include both arrivals and departures.

Meanwhile, the Plumtree Border Post will today start operating for 24 hours in preparation for Easter holidays travellers.

Assistant Regional Immigration Officer in Charge of the border, Mr Blessing Marwa, said they had recorded a significant increase in the number of travellers passing through the border since the start of the week.

"We will be opening 24 hours as from tomorrow the 13th of April and we will close the border at 10PM on Friday 14 April. We will resume the 24 hour service on Sunday the 16th where we shall open at 6AM and close the border on Monday the 17th at 6PM. As of now the number of travellers that are being cleared in a day at the border has doubled. We expect the highest influx on Good Friday as many travellers will be coming in and Easter Monday where we will have many exits," Mr Marwa said.

He said they normally handle 2 000 travellers daily and the figures were expected to reach 8 000 on Friday and Monday.

Mr Marwa said they were prepared to handle the influx of travellers and measures had been put in place to ensure that people were not delayed.  "We will move from the usual two shifts to three shifts during our 24 hour service and our system is good to go. We have a full staff complement and we got an additional two officers on Saturday.

"We are prepared to handle the influx of travellers and will do all we can to ensure that people are not delayed," he said.

Mr Marwa said his office had engaged their counterparts in Botswana to ensure that feeder borders in the neighbouring country namely Ramokgwebana, Martins Drift and Tlokweng Border Posts also open 24 hours.

He said they were concerned about delays at Ramokgwebana Border Post, but his office will engage their counterparts from the neighbouring country over the issue.

Mr Marwa said buses that were cleared as early as 7AM at the Plumtree Border Post were only being cleared at 12 midday at Ramokgwebana Border.

"We have not had any problems with queues since the number of travellers increased ahead of the Easter Holiday but our counterparts have not been effective. During the course of this week, several travellers have turned back because of delays in being cleared at the Botswana side. We clear the early buses by 7AM only for them to be cleared by 12midday at the Botswana side," he said.