News / Regional
Beitbridge Border Post, 29% increase in the volume of arrivals
24 Dec 2013 at 13:32hrs | Views
Activity at Beitbridge Border Post has heightened with the Department of Immigration recording a 29% increase in the volume of arrivals as more Zimbabweans based in South Africa flock home for the festive season.
Around 170 000 travellers, 25 000 private cars, 2 100 buses, 15 000 trucks going in either direction pass through the border every month.
Despite the surge in traffic, the movement of both human and vehicular traffic has drastically improved in comparison to the past five years.
Travellers are spending less than 30 minutes at the border post rather than the three to eight hours of previous years. Figures from the Department of Immigration show that 612 773 people went through Beitbridge between December 1 and 23, compared to 484 307 over the same period last year.
Assistant regional immigration officer-in-charge at Beitbridge Mr Charles Gwede said the number of people using the border post had increased as many people were now documented.
"You will note that passports are now affordable and hence a lot of people are now travelling legally. A lot of people started travelling in the first week of December while others have staggered their movement to avoid the last-minute rush," he said.
Mr Gwede said on average they cleared under 9 000 people per day but the numbers were now between 15 000 and 20 000. He said 105 701 travellers accessed the border post between Friday last week and midday Monday.
Immigration and Customs officials from both Zimbabwe and South Africa have come up with a raft of measures to ease congestion at the border post and more officers have been deployed on both sides port of entry and exit.
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has 282 officers stationed there.
Around 170 000 travellers, 25 000 private cars, 2 100 buses, 15 000 trucks going in either direction pass through the border every month.
Despite the surge in traffic, the movement of both human and vehicular traffic has drastically improved in comparison to the past five years.
Travellers are spending less than 30 minutes at the border post rather than the three to eight hours of previous years. Figures from the Department of Immigration show that 612 773 people went through Beitbridge between December 1 and 23, compared to 484 307 over the same period last year.
Assistant regional immigration officer-in-charge at Beitbridge Mr Charles Gwede said the number of people using the border post had increased as many people were now documented.
"You will note that passports are now affordable and hence a lot of people are now travelling legally. A lot of people started travelling in the first week of December while others have staggered their movement to avoid the last-minute rush," he said.
Mr Gwede said on average they cleared under 9 000 people per day but the numbers were now between 15 000 and 20 000. He said 105 701 travellers accessed the border post between Friday last week and midday Monday.
Immigration and Customs officials from both Zimbabwe and South Africa have come up with a raft of measures to ease congestion at the border post and more officers have been deployed on both sides port of entry and exit.
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has 282 officers stationed there.
Source - Herald
