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Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
PARLIAMENT has urged the government to tighten security at the country’s border posts to end illegal activities that include corruption and human trafficking. In a report presented in the National Assembly on Wednesday, the parliamentary portfolio committee on defence, home affairs and security services, said a lot of illegal entry points along the country’s borders were being abused by locals, traders and criminals.

The committee said unlimited entry and exit points provide other challenges such as those associated with human trafficking.

Presenting the committee’s report, the committee’s chairperson, Clifford Sibanda, said the government was losing a lot of revenue due to illegal activities at the border posts.

“There’s a need for an inter-ministerial committee to deal with issues of coordinating activities at the border posts and the Anti-Corruption Commission has to be visible to handle any nefarious activities that take place around the border posts in the country,” said Sibanda.

“Generally, there has been a public outcry about corrupt practices at border posts countrywide. It’s your committee’s considered view that there’s a need to move staff at border posts on rotational basis as a way of curbing rampant corruption by officials who overstay at border posts.”

He said the immigration department needs to come up with measures to curb illegal movements across borders through regular patrols, with the assistance of the Zimbabwean Republic Police.

“Stringent laws should also be put in place before the end of the year to bring to an end challenges bedevilling the management of our borders, which have seen a lot of revenue being lost,” Sibanda added.

The defence committee chairperson also said the immigration department should effectively deal with cases of students from neighbouring countries who, from time to time, attend institutions of higher learning in the country by formalising their entry.