News / Religion
SA to deploy more immigration officers at Beitbridge Border Post
18 Jun 2013 at 00:38hrs | Views
SOUTH Africa will this week deploy more immigration officers at Beitbridge Border Post in a bid to facilitate the quick movement of human and vehicular traffic entering and leaving that country, an official said. The deployment follows an outcry from travellers over undue delays and congestion at that country's border post where travellers are forced to spend several hours in the queue.
In some instances travellers had to cancel their trips to the neighbouring country.
South Africa's Border Operations Coordinating Committee spokesperson Mr Calvin Mulaudzi said in a telephone interview yesterday that they have resolved to deploy more staff following an increase in the volume of traffic passing through the border post.
He said an increase in the movement of travellers between the two countries signified strong trade relations hence the need to address barriers to free trade.
"We are operating with 20 officers per shift and we are now looking at increasing the number to at least 30 officers.
"We also have another team on the ground, which is conducting investigations on the movement trend with the hope of making further adjustments on our operations and deployments," he said.
Mr Mulaudzi said the team has been on the ground for the past two weeks.
"Indications so far are that we are having a lot of people accessing the border post in the mornings and evenings. We have started streamlining our operations in line with this trend of movement.
"In fact, we were actually left with a few officials to man our immigration counters after we had sent some for an in house training programme.
"We believe the programme will help us create an even more efficient human resource base to help speed up the clearance of travellers," he said.
Mr Mulaudzi said though they were witnessing long winding queues at the border post, they were still manageable, adding that by the end of the week they anticipated an improvement.
He said they will today meet senior border officials from Zimbabwe with a view of sharing ideas and solutions to the issues affecting the slow movement of traffic between the two countries.
He attributed congestion largely to cross border buses which in most cases arrived at the entry point at the same time despite operating on different time tables.
"We have also been engaging the cross border association over the conduct of some of their members.
"These buses operate on different timetables, but they tend to arrive at the same time resulting in them clogging the border. We have resolved to clear the buses on the first-come-first serve basis," said Mr Mulaudzi.
Off late there has been an increase in the volume of traffic between the two countries, resulting in travellers spending longer hours queuing for clearance at the South African border.
The surge in traffic has also been attributed to the weakening of the rand against the United States dollar.
This has seen scores of shoppers flocking to South Africa.
On average Beitbridge Border Post handles about 8 000 daily with the figures rising to 25 000 during peak periods such as holidays and month-ends.
In some instances travellers had to cancel their trips to the neighbouring country.
South Africa's Border Operations Coordinating Committee spokesperson Mr Calvin Mulaudzi said in a telephone interview yesterday that they have resolved to deploy more staff following an increase in the volume of traffic passing through the border post.
He said an increase in the movement of travellers between the two countries signified strong trade relations hence the need to address barriers to free trade.
"We are operating with 20 officers per shift and we are now looking at increasing the number to at least 30 officers.
"We also have another team on the ground, which is conducting investigations on the movement trend with the hope of making further adjustments on our operations and deployments," he said.
Mr Mulaudzi said the team has been on the ground for the past two weeks.
"Indications so far are that we are having a lot of people accessing the border post in the mornings and evenings. We have started streamlining our operations in line with this trend of movement.
"In fact, we were actually left with a few officials to man our immigration counters after we had sent some for an in house training programme.
Mr Mulaudzi said though they were witnessing long winding queues at the border post, they were still manageable, adding that by the end of the week they anticipated an improvement.
He said they will today meet senior border officials from Zimbabwe with a view of sharing ideas and solutions to the issues affecting the slow movement of traffic between the two countries.
He attributed congestion largely to cross border buses which in most cases arrived at the entry point at the same time despite operating on different time tables.
"We have also been engaging the cross border association over the conduct of some of their members.
"These buses operate on different timetables, but they tend to arrive at the same time resulting in them clogging the border. We have resolved to clear the buses on the first-come-first serve basis," said Mr Mulaudzi.
Off late there has been an increase in the volume of traffic between the two countries, resulting in travellers spending longer hours queuing for clearance at the South African border.
The surge in traffic has also been attributed to the weakening of the rand against the United States dollar.
This has seen scores of shoppers flocking to South Africa.
On average Beitbridge Border Post handles about 8 000 daily with the figures rising to 25 000 during peak periods such as holidays and month-ends.
Source - Zimpapers
