Corruption rocks Beitbridge border post

Mthwakazi Republic Party has alleged that it received reports from members who have been forced to pay bribes at the Beitbridge border post and blames  the scam on the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and the Zimbabwe Republic Police members.

In a statement the party spokesperson Mbonmisi Gumbo said Mthwakazi Republic Party is reliably informed that, there is a lot of corruption taking place at Beitbridge Border Post.

"ZIMRA Officials working with ZRP, Private Security guards at the Border, Touts and the Immigration Officials are fleecing our people their hard earned money, VID is also involved in the corruption schemes at the Border Post as well as on the Road from there to Bulawayo," he claimed. "Our members who are involved in Cross border transport business are complaining that these culprits are taking away a lot of money forcing them out of business. They said they are now forced to carry between R5 000-00 to R10 000-00 for bribes and toll gates from SA to Bulawayo excluding Fuel, salaries, duty and many other expenses that may arise taking into consideration the issue of spare parts as well."

He said this is the breakdown of the bribe charges at the border post for cross border transport operators.

"As soon as you enter the Zimbabwean side from South Africa you are required to buy what they call Manifesto from touts around the Border at R20-00, from there you pay private security guards employed at the Border to maintain order R100 for them to open the bay for your vehicle to enter so that you are searched," Gumbo said. "From there you now pay some touts or the so called CID a minimum of R1000-00 so that they facilitate for you to be searched by ZIMRA failure of which you can spend the whole day without being attended to and they don't care at all."

He said a few meters from the searching bay there are CID officials who demand R300-00 from every car that passes them failure of which they tell you to off load your trailer.

"After that you are required by law to go to the CID office at the Border where you are required to produce all the papers of your vehicle, so they check whether your vehicle is a stolen one or not, if your papers are in order they tell you to see the private security outside before they sign and give you your papers back," he said. "Outside there the security guard simple ask you to pay R50-00 for no apparent reason after paying then you are given a code and then you go back to the office to collect your papers. The reason why they ask you to go outside is so that they avoid cameras which are fitted in those offices and the code is confirmation of payment of a bribe."

Gumbo said before one reaches the last gate to come out of the Border there are ZIMRA officials there where one is  supposed to get a Gate Pass working with CID one  is also required to pay at least R1000-00 or they threaten to re offload your trailer again and again.

"At the Last gate the VID will be waiting for you and they charge $50-00 bribe if you don't have a permit, and even if you have a permit you still required to pay $50-00 so that they won't tell you to go to VID depot, where you will be required to pay more," Gumbo said. "The Immigration officials demand R300-00 bribe for every one without a passport all these work with the Police the very people who are supposed to protect the public from corrupt people are the ones asking for unreasonable bribes from poor citizens."

He said a hundred meters from the Border post gate there is a ZR Police traffic road block where you are required to pay a R100-00 bribe failure of which one risky being issued with many unreasonable fine tickets as punishment for failure or refusal to pay a bribe.

"From Beitbridge Border Post to Bulawayo it's about 320 kilometers, and it's supposed to be a four hour journey Omalayistha end up spending between 12 to 13 hours because of roadblocks. There is a minimum of 13 road blocks on that road including Gwanda and Bulawayo VID inspectors. At every road block you are required to pay a bribe minimum R50-00 and VID they charge exorbitant bribes of between $20-00 and $50-00 or else your vehicle will be required to go to the depot," he said.
 
"Lastly but not least as MRP we are worried and we view this as the implementation of the ZANU PF Satanic 1979 grand Plan making sure that there is no one from Mthwakazi who must prosper. All the said corrupt people manning these important public offices are all Shona and they do this against Mthwakazi people. We therefore encourage all Omalayistha owners, drivers and everyone concerned to demonstrate and resist some of this nonsense they are subjected to."

Gumbo said the minister responsible of ZIMRA must make sure people don't stay long at the border because thus where corruption starts.

"The ZRP Police based at the nearby police station are also accused of coming to Border when there are off duty to help ZIMRA officials in the self-enriching schemes," he said.