Beitbridge border post ready for holiday travellers

The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has deployed additional personnel to Beitbridge border post, with the department of Home Affairs in South Africa also doing the same to selected ports of entry, to cater for the festive season movement. Beitbridge border post is one of the busiest inland ports of entry in Southern Africa with 170, 000 people, 2,100 buses, 25,000 private cars and 20,000 trucks passing through every month.

The figures often double during the festive season. Zimra's director of corporate and legal affairs, Florence Jambwa yesterday confirmed the development, but could not immediately reveal the exact number of extra personnel deployed to Beitbridge.

"As you may appreciate, this time of the year is our peak period in terms of movement of commercial goods as importers and exporters prepare for the festive season and the usual annual shutdown," said Jambwa.

"The volumes of commercial traffic have, therefore, increased considerably. As usual, additional staff has been deployed to Beitbridge Border Post to cater for the increased traffic during the festive season."

She said they had fully prepared for the anticipated increase in the volume of both human and vehicular traffic. It is understood that Zimra clears an average of 500 outgoing trucks per month and 400 incoming commercial trucks per day and that has more than doubled as the festive season gathers momentum.

The parastatal has 336 workers against a requirement of 427. The department of immigration also said yesterday that it was ready to deal with an influx of travellers during the festive season.

The assistant regional immigration officer in charge of compliance and enforcement, Francis Mabika said they were well prepared for the festive season. "We've realigned our systems at all ports of entry to increase efficiency and the speedy clearance of travellers this festive season.

"We'll continue to review our operations and expecting a smooth flow of traffic throughout the holidays," he said. South Africa's Home Affairs Minister, Malusi Gigaba said selected ports of entry in South Africa, including Beitbridge will between December 10, 2015 and January 14, 2016 operate on extended hours, with additional staff and extra resources.

"This will cater for the pre-festive season movement, the post-festive season period and the re-opening of schools in the New Year. Affected are those ports where an increase in traveller movement is expected.

"As government departments operating in the ports of entry (health, agriculture, police, home affairs and Sars), through the Inter-Agency Clearing Forum, we'll be deploying additional staff to the selected ports of entry. This is to boost service delivery," said Gigaba.

He said the two major land ports of entry in South Africa, Beitbridge and Lebombo, continue to receive the majority of travellers during the festive period.

"We've deployed additional personnel to our busiest border posts with resounding success over the years, with good results for travellers. The past festive season was one of the most successful periods as there were very few incidents reported," said Gigaba

On Thursday Gigaba and his state security counterpart David Mahlobo toured their component of the Beitbridge border post to assess the state of preparedness for an increase in traffic during the holidays.