Long queues build up at Beitbridge Border Post
Published: 2013 December 17 21:20:47 (6165 Views)
Long queues of travellers had started to build up at the Beitbridge Border Post as travellers mostly Zimbabweans commonly known as injiva have started flocking home ahead of the Christmas holiday.
A visit to the border post on Tuesday, there was an increased volume of traffic and long winding queues of travellers.
Holidaymakers were travelling from South Africa to Zimbabwe and countries further north, using the busy port of entry.
Authorities said they expected traffic congestion at the border to start building up over the weekend as Zimbabweans working in South Africa would be starting to flock home to spend Christmas with their families.
In an interview yesterday, the assistant regional immigration manager in charge of border post, Charles Gwede said as part of their decongestion drive, there had scrambled their shifts to maximize on manpower during the normal and extra peak days.
"In fact, starting from 13 December we have been receiving a huge influx of travellers and we anticipate a further increase over the weekend as more travellers will pass through the border for Christmas. We have dissolved our shifts to ensure that we have more officers per shift who would effectively manage the queues and speed up the clearance process.
"We also received 15 more officers from other stations to beef up the local staff and ensure that all check points and counters are adequately manned and we have also created more filter gates to reduce congestion," said Gwede.
Beitbridge Border Post has a staff complement of 47 officers and support staff.
Gwede said they have since the closure of schools in Zimbabwe and South Africa been experiencing an increase in the number of travellers passing through the border. He said they had also suspended off and leave days for the immigration staff in the run up to the festive period.
"We have suspended off and leave days for our staff starting from 13 December to 13 January next year. As border stakeholders, we held several inter-border meetings with our South African counterparts to discuss and explore ways and strategies aimed at dealing with congestion during extra peak periods.
"We have harmonised our systems and as we are working together with South African authorities because the issue of congestion on either side has an impact on both sides of the border.
"We will categories travellers and create more service points for visitors, motorists, buses and pedestrians as a way of trying to decongest the border and reduce queues. We want to make sure that people do not spend more than 30 minutes in the queues and those travelling in buses will be cleared according to the vehicle register to avoid unnecessary congestion," said Gwede.
He however, could not release the latest statistics on the movement of travellers, saying they were still in the process of compiling them. Last year's travellers during the Christmas holidays, travellers spent several days stranded the Beitbridge border because of congestion and delays by immigration officials.
During a recent Zimbabwe/South Africa Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, the Home Affairs ministers from the two countries said they would come up with a range of measures to curb congestion and weed out criminal activity at the Beitbridge Border Post during the festive season.
The measures include setting up clearance centres away from the border.
South Africa's Border Control Co-coordinating Committee (BCOCC) said it will deploy more staff at the border to speed up the clearance of travellers at the border.
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) spokesperson, Mr Canisio Mudzimu, said they would deploy relief officers to Beitbridge Border Post to beef up the local staff and help speed up the customs clearance process.
He said in an effort to reduce congestion, they would create additional space outside the traditional customs halls in anticipation of a huge volume of traffic.
"We are geared up in terms of facilitating the smooth movement of both human and vehicular traffic passing through Beitbridge Border Post during the festive season. We will deploy extra officers from less busy stations to Beitbridge Border Post during the festive period and to assist in border operations," he said.
Beitbridge is the busiest inland port of entry in sub-Saharan Africa handling an average of 10 000 travellers daily with the figures doubling up during peak periods such Christmas holiday.
- Zim Metro
A visit to the border post on Tuesday, there was an increased volume of traffic and long winding queues of travellers.
Holidaymakers were travelling from South Africa to Zimbabwe and countries further north, using the busy port of entry.
Authorities said they expected traffic congestion at the border to start building up over the weekend as Zimbabweans working in South Africa would be starting to flock home to spend Christmas with their families.
In an interview yesterday, the assistant regional immigration manager in charge of border post, Charles Gwede said as part of their decongestion drive, there had scrambled their shifts to maximize on manpower during the normal and extra peak days.
"In fact, starting from 13 December we have been receiving a huge influx of travellers and we anticipate a further increase over the weekend as more travellers will pass through the border for Christmas. We have dissolved our shifts to ensure that we have more officers per shift who would effectively manage the queues and speed up the clearance process.
"We also received 15 more officers from other stations to beef up the local staff and ensure that all check points and counters are adequately manned and we have also created more filter gates to reduce congestion," said Gwede.
Beitbridge Border Post has a staff complement of 47 officers and support staff.
Gwede said they have since the closure of schools in Zimbabwe and South Africa been experiencing an increase in the number of travellers passing through the border. He said they had also suspended off and leave days for the immigration staff in the run up to the festive period.
"We have suspended off and leave days for our staff starting from 13 December to 13 January next year. As border stakeholders, we held several inter-border meetings with our South African counterparts to discuss and explore ways and strategies aimed at dealing with congestion during extra peak periods.
"We have harmonised our systems and as we are working together with South African authorities because the issue of congestion on either side has an impact on both sides of the border.
"We will categories travellers and create more service points for visitors, motorists, buses and pedestrians as a way of trying to decongest the border and reduce queues. We want to make sure that people do not spend more than 30 minutes in the queues and those travelling in buses will be cleared according to the vehicle register to avoid unnecessary congestion," said Gwede.
He however, could not release the latest statistics on the movement of travellers, saying they were still in the process of compiling them. Last year's travellers during the Christmas holidays, travellers spent several days stranded the Beitbridge border because of congestion and delays by immigration officials.
During a recent Zimbabwe/South Africa Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, the Home Affairs ministers from the two countries said they would come up with a range of measures to curb congestion and weed out criminal activity at the Beitbridge Border Post during the festive season.
The measures include setting up clearance centres away from the border.
South Africa's Border Control Co-coordinating Committee (BCOCC) said it will deploy more staff at the border to speed up the clearance of travellers at the border.
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) spokesperson, Mr Canisio Mudzimu, said they would deploy relief officers to Beitbridge Border Post to beef up the local staff and help speed up the customs clearance process.
He said in an effort to reduce congestion, they would create additional space outside the traditional customs halls in anticipation of a huge volume of traffic.
"We are geared up in terms of facilitating the smooth movement of both human and vehicular traffic passing through Beitbridge Border Post during the festive season. We will deploy extra officers from less busy stations to Beitbridge Border Post during the festive period and to assist in border operations," he said.
Beitbridge is the busiest inland port of entry in sub-Saharan Africa handling an average of 10 000 travellers daily with the figures doubling up during peak periods such Christmas holiday.
- Zim Metro
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