Plumtree, Ramokwebana Border Posts opens 24hrs til Christmas

Published: 2013 December 19 21:16:04 (6867 Views)

PLUMTREE and Ramokwebana Border Posts will be opened 24 hours with effect from today up to December 25 to ease congestion and enhance smooth human and vehicular movement.

Last year Botswana officials declined to offer a 24 hour service to travellers while their Zimbabwean counterparts opened 24 hours.

Yesterday the Principal Immigration Officer in charge of Western Region, Nonhlanhla Nyathi said they had engaged their Botswana counterparts on the issue and agreed.

"We have reached an agreement with our Botswana counterparts to open the two borders 24 hours up until December 25 where we will be closing at 10pm," she said.

Nyathi added: "The 24 hour service starts tomorrow (today).

We will be opening at 6am and we are not closing for the next five days." Nyathi said as part of their decongestion drive, they had collapsed their shifts to maximise on manpower during the normal and extra-peak days.

"We are geared up to handle the influx of travellers.

We have set two 12 hour shifts that will see that we work all time round at maximum speed.

We do not have any additional staff but we have cancelled all leave days and off days.

The office is fully staffed," she said.

"We have also increased our clearing points as we are operating from cubics located outside to ensure that travellers are not delayed." Nyathi said the number of travellers had increased over the past four days at all three borders of the western region.

"The number of travellers handled by the Plumtree Maitengwe and Mpoengs offices has doubled.

The number that is being handled per day by the Plumtree office is now sitting at 6, 000," she said.

"We recorded this increase over the last four days from the normal 2, 000 travellers that were handling before.

We expect the number to increase as from Monday next week as that is when we handle the most travellers.

That is when a number of Zimbabweans working outside the country come to visit their families over Christmas." Nyathi said the infrastructure at Maitengwe was, however, not complete as officers were still operating from a wooden shack, which restricts the amount of work to be done.

The bulk of the work is done manually as there is no electricity, she said.

Nyathi said Mpoengs border did not have electricity and that the roads to access these two borders were in a bad state.

Maitengwe and Mpoengs are satellite border posts which are supposed to support the main border post by reducing the number of travellers cleared at the main border post.

Maitengwe is mostly supposed to service people from the Bulilima community and those who border the Tsholotsho community.

Said Nyathi: "We engaged our Botswana counterparts over delays that are normally experienced by travellers at the Botswana side during this time of the year.

They have promised that this year will be better as they have said they are geared to handle the influx of travellers," she said.

"They have additional staff and they have indicated that their clearing system is working well." The Ramokgwebana Border Post in Botswana has been in the past overwhelmed by the increased number of travellers causing a delay in clearing travellers.

- Zim Metro