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Sukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
HUNDREDS of travellers returning to Botswana and South Africa following the end of the festive holiday are stranded at the Botswana border side as immigration officers in the neighbouring country are reportedly on go slow.

The situation, which has been going on for the past three days, worsened on Monday and yesterday.

Some travellers reportedly gave up and returned to their homes on Monday evening after standing for long hours in the queue.

Other travellers who had arrived at the Botswana border on Monday afternoon were only cleared yesterday at 2AM. When a Chronicle news crew visited the Plumtree border yesterday afternoon impatient travellers were still stranded in long winding queues.

However, a contrasting situation prevailed at the Plumtree Border as people were being cleared quickly.

Travellers said they felt the Botswana immigration officials were delaying them on purpose.

Mandla Siziba who was on his way to South Africa, said the queue did not seem to be moving.

He said he had been standing in the queue since 6AM and by 3PM yesterday, he was still to be served.

“As you can see I’m still in the queue and I’m outside of the clearing hall. This shows that I still have to wait in this queue for several more hours.

“I think these people are detaining us on purpose because the same number of people being cleared on the Zimbabwean side are being cleared on the Botswana side. I hardly spent more than 30 minutes on the Zimbabwean side,” said Siziba.

Another traveller who was on her way to Botswana, Ruth Lusinga said it had become a common trend for immigration officials from the neighbouring country to delay travellers during the festive holiday.

She said the delays inconvenienced mostly those who were rushing for urgent business.

Lusinga said relevant authorities had to rectify the problem once and for all as innocent travellers were being punished for no apparent reason.

Regional Immigration Officer-in-charge for Western Region Regies Munyaradzi said his office had tried to engage their Botswana counterparts but failed to get a satisfactory explanation for the delays.

He said he visited the neighbouring border yesterday following complainants from travellers and found a long winding queue while their side was clear.

“A number of people who had come home for the holiday are now returning to their workplaces but they are leaving in bits and pieces as compared to when they were entering the country just before Christmas.

“We have not received any tangible reasons as the pressure has eased a bit. As far as our exit side is concerned we do not have long queues as we’re clearing people as quickly as possible,” he said.

Munyaradzi said in the past their counterparts were attributing their delays to network challenges but this time around they had not communicated with them.

Some travellers noted that they had experienced similar challenges on their way into the country just ahead of the festive season.