Runaway truck crash at new Beitbridge border bus terminal

The Zimborders Consortium that is transforming the Beitbridge Border Post at a cost of US$300 million in partnership with the Government is working on improving public safety at the country's busiest inland port.

This follows an incident on Thursday evening when a Pretoria-bound haulage truck's brakes failed resulting in it ploughing into the bus terminal. The truck was carrying 26 tonnes of granite stone.

The truck driver was processing his travelling documents at around 7pm when the incident occurred.

No one was injured.

Zimborders Consortium General Manager Mr Nqobile Ncube said they were now assessing the damage to the infrastructure.

"We are still assessing the damage on the property and at the same time we are working on improving issues of public safety to ensure that incidents like these don't recur," he said.

"The vehicle has been towed away to the Vehicle Inspectorate Department (VID) for assessment pending further recommendations".

The visibly-shaken driver, Mr Genias Munetsi said he was travelling from Mutawatawa, Mashonaland East to Pretoria, South Africa.

He said he had not experienced any mechanical fault on the vehicle between Mutawatawa and the Beitbridge Border Post.

Mr Munetsi said he parked the vehicle in the south-bound commercial parking area when he went to get his travel documents processed.

"When I arrived at the border I parked the vehicle facing east, as usual with its handbrake on and went on to process my travelling documents in the freight terminal," he said.

"On my way back, I heard some noise from the crowd and rushed to check.

"I went into a state of shock when I discovered that it was my truck that had rolled from the freight terminal to the bus terminal. My fear was that it could have injured or killed someone. I only cooled down after the customs clearing agent indicated that no one had been injured or killed".

Mr Munetsi said he then went to his truck and engaged authorities who then towed it away to the VID yard.

When our news crew arrived at the border, Zimborders Consortium workers were busy fixing one of the traffic control booms that had been extensively damaged.

Part of the parking bay at the bus terminal was partially damaged and officials from the Environmental Management Agency were working on cleaning up oil spillages from the truck.

The fence separating the freight and bus terminals parking bay had been damaged.

Beitbridge Border Post is being transformed in a 17-and-a-half-year private public partnership (PPP) between Zimborders and the Government.

The project is being done in three phases which include the freight, bus and light vehicles terminal.

So far the freight and bus terminals have been opened and commissioned by President Mnangagwa while the construction of the light vehicles terminal is underway and will open to traffic in December.

The modernisation initiative also has five major out-of-port works which include a fire station, a sewer oxidation dam, 220 staff housing units, an animal plant and quarantine facility and a 11,4 mega litres reservoir.

All these are at various stages of construction.