Congestion at Beitbridge border post

THEIR frustration could be seen by the continual shaking of their heads as the long queue, moving at a snail's pace, snaked to the check point.

Luke Marange (42), and his wife, Chipo Mushowe (34), of Dangamvura in Mutare had been in the queue for a gruelling four hours before they could pass Beitbridge border post into Zimbabwe last week, as congestion at the border continues unabated.

The couple were on their way home from a shopping trip in South Africa.

When Standardcommunity visited the South African side, shoppers and tourists could not hide their anger at the long time they spent passing through Beitbridge border post.

They accused immigration officials from both sides of the border of taking too much time to clear a single person, causing unnecessary congestion.

"We spend about one and a half hours waiting to be cleared at the Musina border post. There were scores of people in the queue when we arrived and the queue was moving at a snail's pace as the immigration workers took their time to clear us," said the visibly exhausted Marange.

But the one and half hours delay at the South African side was nothing compared to the three and half hours the couple later spent at the Zimbabwean side.

Tempers flared as Zimbabwe Revenue Authorities (Zimra) officials started rummaging through the travellers' luggage, searching for those who had evaded paying duty.

The officials took their time searching each and every bag, box and even women's handbags.

"We used to complain of the South Africa immigration officials ill-treating us, but our own people have become even worse," fumed Mushowe. "They are also very slow and do whatever they want with us.

Imagine, we wait about an hour before they even attend to us."
She added: "The level of professionalism at the border post has gone down and we just wonder when this problem will come to an end? I think they enjoy seeing us stuck here at the border."

Mushowe claimed that those who paid bribes to avoid paying duty and had their papers processed quickly.

The Standardcommunity also noticed that a queue for vehicles was stretching up to 100 metres waiting to be cleared.

Efforts to get a comment from the immigration officials at the border were fruitless.

Beitbridge is the busiest border post in southern Africa, handling about 9 000 travellers daily. The figure sometimes soars up to over 25 000 during holidays.

Tourism players have also repeatedly called on the government to resolve the problem of congestion, as it was a "death penalty" to the industry.

Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive officer, Karikoga Kaseke recently said an interim board had been set up by government to address the crisis at the border post to guarantee the swift flow of travellers and traffic, ahead of the United Nations Tourism World Organisation (UNWTO) meeting.