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Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau 

THE continued power supply crisis in South Africa has triggered chaos at the Beitbridge Border Post where commercial cargo has started to pile up. 

The neighbouring country’s power utility company, Eskom, has been effecting stages 4 and 6 of electricity load shedding. 

Stage 6 blackouts equate to at least six hours without power per day, possibly in two-hour cycles. 

Things came to a head on Monday when load shedding affected both the immigration and customs online system used to process commercial cargo in the neighbouring country. 

The immigration system was urgently resolved, but South African Revenue Services (SARS) officials were by yesterday failing to process bills of entry for commercial cargo leaving or entering that country. 

Starting from Monday afternoon, south-bound trucks had filled most major roads in Beitbridge town, with queues stretching for over 8km into Zimbabwe. 

An average of 900 commercial trucks are cleared for passage between South Africa and Zimbabwe daily via the Beitbridge Border Post. 

In separate interviews, commercial truck drivers said they had become anxious and that most of them had been in the stationery queue for more than eight hours. 

“We have heard from our freight forwarders that load shedding has affected the online customs clearance system on the South African border and hence we are having delays crossing into that country,” said Mr Peter Manyaira. 

He said they were worried that some perishable goods will be wasted if the long delays continue. 

Another driver, Mr Lloyd Musemwa, said under normal circumstances they spend less than three hours on the Zimbabweans border to complete the customs clearance processes. 

He said they were also concerned that some transporters were being fined R5 000 by South African authorities for spending longer than necessary in their border. 

“Ideally, we should spend less than two hours at the South African border and when you exceed these hours you are fined R5 000. This is sad considering that the delays are not of our own making,” said Mr Musemwa. 

Mr Danmore Makope said the drivers were worried about the state of affairs at the border. 

He said most of them were paid depending on the loads they transport and hence a delay in the movement of cargo will eat into their salaries. 

Most of the goods, he said, were in transit via South Africa to overseas markets.

The acting head of Immigration at Beitbridge, Mr Trustworthy Manatsire said: “The delays are largely linked to electricity supply challenges which has affected operations on the other side of the border.” 

Under the current set up, Zimbabwe and South Africa use the preclearance system to process cargo imports and exports. 

This is a facility where goods are cleared and duties are paid before they reach a specific port of entry, where customs officials will only check for compliance issues. 

In Zimbabwe the clearance is done at the Document Processing Centre (DPC) in Masvingo, Harare and Bulawayo before the trucks may travel to the various ports of entry and exit. 

Zimborders Consortium general manager, Mr Nqobile Ncube said: “We are actively engaging with all relevant agencies to mitigate and manage the situation. Unfortunately, extra territorial factors outside our ambit are at play, but we are engaging and keeping tabs through relevant liaisons.” 

The consortium is transforming the Beitbridge Border Post in a private public partnership (PPP) with Government at a cost of US$300 million. 

It is also managing the infrastructure for 17-and-a-half years under a build operate and transfer initiative. 

SARS spokesperson, Mr Siphithi Sibeko yesterday said they were having challenges with power supply and delays in the delivery of diesel for their backup generator. 

“I have just consulted with my colleagues. It looks like there was a matter of non-delivery of diesel yesterday, but that has been sorted out,” he said. 

According to freight forwarders, delays in the movement of cargo were detrimental to their businesses. 

“We get paid when goods are delivered and in cases like these where the flow of cargo is delayed, the payment for our services is affected as well,” said a freight forwarder identified only as Mr Moyo. 

South Africa is industrialised and has a large market share in retail shops investments in other Sadc countries. Among others, Zimbabwe is believed to be South Africa’s biggest market in Sadc. 

In 2018, South Africa is believed to have exported goods worth over US$1 billion to Zimbabwe formally via Beitbridge alone and considering that there are many alternative ports to get to the two countries, and some people smuggle things across the border the figures could be more. 

According to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) a total of US$307 133 023,59 was collected from imports originating from South Africa that came through Beitbridge in 2018.  -@tupeyo