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Mashudu Netsianda Senior Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) yesterday deployed a team of forensic experts to Beitbridge to investigate the cause of the fire that on Thursday gutted down its customs warehouse in the border town. Authorities had to temporarily shut down the border with South Africa as a result of the inferno, which reportedly cost the state millions of dollars in revenue after impounded goods went up in flames.

Zimra commissioner-general Gershem Pasi yesterday said they would only come up with the findings after the completion of the investigations, although it is widely speculated by members of the public that the fire could have been an inside job to conceal dirty deals.

“Zimra is sad to announce that our clients were inconvenienced when our warehouse in Beitbridge caught fire resulting in a massive loss of goods. We’ve however, sent a team of forensic experts to Beitbridge to conduct investigations and they’re working with our loss control department,” said Pasi.

“Zimra is a very big entity and we want to avoid speculation, which is why we’ve engaged experts to do the investigations so that we’re able to establish the exact cause of the fire. We need to put mechanisms in place to avoid the recurrence of such disasters as part of the Beitbridge re-development programme, which seeks to expand the border and address the day-to-day challenges faced by travellers,” he said.

The blaze exposed Beitbridge’s lack of fire preparedness with officials having to ask South Africa to help as the border town has no fire station or fire fighting equipment. Beitbridge Town Council relies heavily on Musina Municipality in the event of fire disasters.

The warehouse was used to keep goods impounded from smugglers such as television sets, electrical goods, blankets and groceries whose customs duty value was estimated to be $1 million.

Spokesperson for the Beitbridge Civil Protection Unit (CPU) committee, Talent Munda said fire fighters battled the inferno until yesterday morning. He said authorities had to engage Masvingo Fire Brigade to beef up the local teams.