News / National
Beitbridge in talks with SA to speed up the process of clearing travellers
08 Dec 2011 at 19:34hrs | Views
THE Department of Immigration in Beitbridge has put in place mechanisms aimed at dealing with congestion at the border post during the festive season.
The assistant regional immigration manager-in-charge of Beitbridge Border Post, Mr Charles Gwede, said they have since held a series of meetings with their South African counterparts on how they would work together to speed up the process of clearing travellers during the Christmas holiday.
"We have various systems in place to co-ordinate and see how best we can tackle congestion during the festive period.
"As border stakeholders, we have held several inter-border meetings with our South African counterparts to discuss and explore ways and strategies aimed at dealing with congestion during that period," said Mr Gwede.
"We need to work together with the South Africans and exchange notes because the issue of congestion on either side has an impact on both sides of the border." Mr Gwede said they experienced a slight increase in the number of travellers who passed through the border last weekend.
"We had an increased number of travellers over the weekend largely because it was a month end when most travellers would be going for shopping and having rebates.
"We, however, anticipate that there would be a huge influx of travellers passing through the border post starting next week," he said.
Traditionally, immigration officials at Beitbridge Border Post handle an increased number of travellers during the festive season, a majority of them Zimbabweans working in South Africa popularly known as injiva, who would be flocking back into the country to spend Christmas with their families.
"We are aware that as we approach the festive season, we normally get an increased volume of travellers coming from or heading to South Africa including other nationals such as Zambians and Malawians using Beitbridge Border Post. This results in pressure on our personnel and therefore we are working on various strategies to ensure that we speed up the clearance of travellers.
"We will categorise travellers and create more counters to quicken the clearance process," said Mr Gwede.
He said they would suspend leave and off-days for their staff during the peak period.
"As part of our decongestion drive we will rearrange our shifts to maximise on manpower starting from 15 December when we anticipate that there would be a huge influx of travellers. Between 22 and 25 December, we will further dissolve the shift from three to two to ensure that we have more officers per shift who would effectively manage the queue and speed up the clearance process," he said.
Mr Gwede said they were expecting more officers from other stations to beef up the local staff complement and ensure that all check points and counters were adequately manned. Beitbridge Border Post has a staff complement of 55 officers and support staff.
"We continue to urge other stakeholders to complement our efforts to ensure a smooth passage of travellers during the festive period and we will also tighten security at the border to deter touts and bogus clearing agents from accessing the border area.
"We have put a perimeter fence around the border area to enhance security and there are access controlled gates manned 24 hours by police," he said.
In the past there was uncontrolled entry into the border area resulting in touts and bogus clearing agents finding their way into the customs yard where they would swindle unsuspecting travellers of their money under the guise of offering assistance. Beitbridge is the busiest inland port of entry in sub-Saharan Africa, which handles a huge volume of both human and vehicular traffic passing through everyday.
Commercial trucks destined for East and Central African countries such as Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia also pass through the border post.Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) will soon deploy 42 relief officers to Beitbridge Border Post to beef up the local staff complement and help speed up the customs clearance process during the festive period.
Zimra's director of legal and corporate services Ms Florence Jambwa said to reduce congestion, they would create additional space outside the traditional customs halls in anticipation of a huge volume of traffic.
"We are geared up in terms of facilitating the smooth movement of both human and vehicular traffic passing through Beitbridge Border Post during the festive season. We will deploy an extra 42 officers from less busy stations to Beitbridge Border Post during the festive period and so far we have already sent 24 additional officers to assist in border operations," she said.
Ms Jambwa said Beitbridge Border Post required at least 247 officers. Beitbridge has an establishment of 141 officers.
"We operate a shift system at all our border posts. Our assignment of personnel and resources is, however, based on factors that drive or demand the utilisation of those resources.
"We therefore want to expedite the movement of traffic through our borders during peak periods hence there will be additional receipting counters during the festive season to ensure that we quicken the revenue collection process" she said.
Ms Jambwa said they create separate traffic lanes to cater for tourists, returning residents, private motorists, commercial, buses and pedestrians to speed up the flow of traffic and reduce congestion.
"We also hold monthly meetings with South African stakeholders to ensure uniformity of purpose and enhancement of trade facilitation. As Zimra we don't want to delay travellers or hinder trade facilitation and we implore all travellers and visitors to obey the law and laid down procedures in order to avoid any unnecessary delays or seizure of goods," she said.
The assistant regional immigration manager-in-charge of Beitbridge Border Post, Mr Charles Gwede, said they have since held a series of meetings with their South African counterparts on how they would work together to speed up the process of clearing travellers during the Christmas holiday.
"We have various systems in place to co-ordinate and see how best we can tackle congestion during the festive period.
"As border stakeholders, we have held several inter-border meetings with our South African counterparts to discuss and explore ways and strategies aimed at dealing with congestion during that period," said Mr Gwede.
"We need to work together with the South Africans and exchange notes because the issue of congestion on either side has an impact on both sides of the border." Mr Gwede said they experienced a slight increase in the number of travellers who passed through the border last weekend.
"We had an increased number of travellers over the weekend largely because it was a month end when most travellers would be going for shopping and having rebates.
"We, however, anticipate that there would be a huge influx of travellers passing through the border post starting next week," he said.
Traditionally, immigration officials at Beitbridge Border Post handle an increased number of travellers during the festive season, a majority of them Zimbabweans working in South Africa popularly known as injiva, who would be flocking back into the country to spend Christmas with their families.
"We are aware that as we approach the festive season, we normally get an increased volume of travellers coming from or heading to South Africa including other nationals such as Zambians and Malawians using Beitbridge Border Post. This results in pressure on our personnel and therefore we are working on various strategies to ensure that we speed up the clearance of travellers.
"We will categorise travellers and create more counters to quicken the clearance process," said Mr Gwede.
He said they would suspend leave and off-days for their staff during the peak period.
"As part of our decongestion drive we will rearrange our shifts to maximise on manpower starting from 15 December when we anticipate that there would be a huge influx of travellers. Between 22 and 25 December, we will further dissolve the shift from three to two to ensure that we have more officers per shift who would effectively manage the queue and speed up the clearance process," he said.
Mr Gwede said they were expecting more officers from other stations to beef up the local staff complement and ensure that all check points and counters were adequately manned. Beitbridge Border Post has a staff complement of 55 officers and support staff.
"We continue to urge other stakeholders to complement our efforts to ensure a smooth passage of travellers during the festive period and we will also tighten security at the border to deter touts and bogus clearing agents from accessing the border area.
"We have put a perimeter fence around the border area to enhance security and there are access controlled gates manned 24 hours by police," he said.
In the past there was uncontrolled entry into the border area resulting in touts and bogus clearing agents finding their way into the customs yard where they would swindle unsuspecting travellers of their money under the guise of offering assistance. Beitbridge is the busiest inland port of entry in sub-Saharan Africa, which handles a huge volume of both human and vehicular traffic passing through everyday.
Commercial trucks destined for East and Central African countries such as Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia also pass through the border post.Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) will soon deploy 42 relief officers to Beitbridge Border Post to beef up the local staff complement and help speed up the customs clearance process during the festive period.
Zimra's director of legal and corporate services Ms Florence Jambwa said to reduce congestion, they would create additional space outside the traditional customs halls in anticipation of a huge volume of traffic.
"We are geared up in terms of facilitating the smooth movement of both human and vehicular traffic passing through Beitbridge Border Post during the festive season. We will deploy an extra 42 officers from less busy stations to Beitbridge Border Post during the festive period and so far we have already sent 24 additional officers to assist in border operations," she said.
Ms Jambwa said Beitbridge Border Post required at least 247 officers. Beitbridge has an establishment of 141 officers.
"We operate a shift system at all our border posts. Our assignment of personnel and resources is, however, based on factors that drive or demand the utilisation of those resources.
"We therefore want to expedite the movement of traffic through our borders during peak periods hence there will be additional receipting counters during the festive season to ensure that we quicken the revenue collection process" she said.
Ms Jambwa said they create separate traffic lanes to cater for tourists, returning residents, private motorists, commercial, buses and pedestrians to speed up the flow of traffic and reduce congestion.
"We also hold monthly meetings with South African stakeholders to ensure uniformity of purpose and enhancement of trade facilitation. As Zimra we don't want to delay travellers or hinder trade facilitation and we implore all travellers and visitors to obey the law and laid down procedures in order to avoid any unnecessary delays or seizure of goods," she said.
Source - chronicle
