Trucks pile up on Zimbabwe side of Beitbridge border as South Africa runs out of parking space

COMMERCIAL cargo destined for regional and international markets is piling up at the Zimbabwean side of the Beitbridge border after the South Africans ran out of parking space at their side of the border.

Zimbabwe has since modernised its border into three terminals for US$300 million to have three terminals to cater for commercial, buses, and light vehicles and pedestrians.

The move has paid dividends with the customs yard in Zimbabwe now able to hold up to 200 trucks at any given time, however, space remains a challenge on the yet-to-be-upgraded South African border.

“What is happening is that our counterparts have created more clearance points for non-commercial traffic which has drastically increased and they have asked us to hold the trucks and send them in batches of 20 to 30 trucks at a time,” said a Zimbabwean border official.

In separate interviews, truck drivers said they had spent more than 24 hours trying to cross into South Africa.

“I have managed to drive for less than 4km in the last 24 hours. The queue is long and static,” said Mr Josenzigose Mazvila, a Mozambican driver.

A driver from Bulawayo, Mr Sihlobo Mthembo, said they were yet to get feedback from local border authorities on the way forward.

“As you can see we hardly slept, we have been pushing towards the border and since I arrived at 5 am on Monday, I managed to drive toward the border in this slow-moving queue for only 2km,” he said.

Another driver, Mr Sydney Mutetwa said his employer was worried because he had taken longer than necessary to cross the border.

He said he had completed all the documentation in Zimbabwe and was only waiting to cross into South Africa.

Under normal circumstances, it takes less than three hours for trucks to clear on both the Zimbabwean and South African side of the border.

In addition, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority uses the preclearance system where imports or exports are processed at the Documented Processing Centres (DPC) before they reach the desired port of entry or exit.

Under the current setup all commercial bills of entries are being processed electronically and these are processed at Harare, Masvingo, and Bulawayo DPC.

When these bills of entry are processed the trucks are then given the green light to the port of entry or exit where authorities are there only to check for conformity.

South Africa’s Border Management Authority spokesperson Mr Stephen van Zeel said on Monday that they had opened more workstations at the border post to clear the rising non-commercial traffic.

“We are ready to handle the traffic through the Beitbridge border post where we have started to witness an increase in non-commercial traffic,” he said. “So, we have deployed more immigration officers from less busy stations and opened more work stations and clearing booths within the border.

“In addition to that, we have created more traffic lanes to ensure that vehicles don’t clog the border and the major highway linking the border and Musina town.”

South Africa cleared higher volumes of traffic on Sunday after main companies carried out annual shutdowns on Friday and Saturday.

Mr van Zeel said their main objective was to cater for the pre-festive season movement, the post-festive season period, and the re-opening of schools in the New Year.