News / Regional
Beitbridge Border traffic surges
07 Aug 2013 at 04:21hrs | Views
The volume of traffic has drastically increased at Beitbridge Border Post and people are spending an average of three hours to enter South Africa. Traffic surged on Sunday night as people resumed their normal business soon after the announcement of the harmonised election results.
A week before the elections, the movement of people at the border had become relatively low with the immigration department assisting less than 6 000 on both sides of the border.
Long queues have become common on the South African border, while people are still being cleared efficiently on the Zimbabwean border.
Travellers said yesterday that they were spending more time on the south of the Limpopo as compared to the few minutes on the Zimbabwean border.
The assistant regional immigration officer in charge of Beitbridge Mr Charles Gwede said many people had suspended movement during the elections and had returned to their normal business.
"You will also note that this is a month-end and holiday where a lot of people cross the border for shopping and visiting in South Africa. We have also seen that people had minimised their movements during the pre-election period but they are now back to business as usual."
A week before the elections, the movement of people at the border had become relatively low with the immigration department assisting less than 6 000 on both sides of the border.
Long queues have become common on the South African border, while people are still being cleared efficiently on the Zimbabwean border.
Travellers said yesterday that they were spending more time on the south of the Limpopo as compared to the few minutes on the Zimbabwean border.
The assistant regional immigration officer in charge of Beitbridge Mr Charles Gwede said many people had suspended movement during the elections and had returned to their normal business.
"You will also note that this is a month-end and holiday where a lot of people cross the border for shopping and visiting in South Africa. We have also seen that people had minimised their movements during the pre-election period but they are now back to business as usual."
Source - herald
