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Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
South Africa, which closed its side of Beitbridge Border Post yesterday, says it will re-open it within 24 hours of full compliance with standard Covid-19 management guidelines.

Pretoria temporarily closed the port of entry to commercial cargo after a South African Revenue Services (SARS) customs officer tested positive for Covid-19.

It was not stated when fumigation was expected to be complete.

SARS head of media and communications, Mr Siphithi Sibeko said they had closed to allow health authorities to carry out fumigations to minimise chances of having more infections.

He said to avoid congestion they had sent notices to all border agencies and also cleared all vehicles which were within the customs yard to make way for proper disinfections.

Mr Sibeko said when they resume operations, they will give priority to the clearance of essential cargo especially perishables, medication and explosives.

“Yes it is true, we closed shop at Beitbridge Port of Entry after one of our officers tested positive for Covid-19,” he said.

“So we had to clear all the in and out-bound commercial trucks which were already in our yard to create room for disinfections in line with the standard protocols set by our government.

“At the moment we are not allowing any new cargo into the border and we expect operations to resume within 24 hours when all safety protocols have been complied with. At the same time we are mindful of the delays that come with this process and hence we are going to give priority to the clearance of essential cargo when we re-open.”

Mr Sibeko said they had since communicated their position with other inter-border agencies in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Since the beginning of the lockdown, an average of 1 000 trucks have been using the border post daily.

Traffic through Beitbridge peaked after other countries in the region closed their borders to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

Zimbabwe remains a viable transit route for Zambia, Malawi, Angola, Tanzania, DRC and Mozambique.

By the end of the day yesterday, commercial trucks were filling up the Zimbabwean commercial side, the highway leading to the border and several truck parks in the town.

Comment could not be obtained from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) last night.

The authority’s regional manager (Beitbridge), Mr Innocent Chikuni, said recently during a tour of the port of entry by Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube that the border post had become a Covid-19 hotspot.

He said they were regularly and consistently providing updates on the disease and the Ministry of Health and Child Care and World Health Organisation’s protection guidelines to border agencies and travellers.

“We are consistently disinfecting our work stations, providing appropriate PPE — face masks/PE worksuits/sanitizers/ document disinfecting — to staff, maintaining social distance and using temperature guns/sanitisers at the entry gate into the border offices — to cater for border agents and other persons,” said Mr Chikuni.

South Africa has a large market share in retail shops investments in other SADC countries and Zimbabwe is one of its biggest trade partners.

In 2018, South Africa is believed to have exported goods worth over US$3,2 billion to Zimbabwe formally via Beitbridge alone.

According to Zimra about US$307 million was collected from imports originating from South Africa that came through Beitbridge in 2018.

The most imported products from South Africa via Beitbridge Border Post include basic commodities, electrical gadgets and mining consumables.

In terms of exports, Zimra processes mainly chrome concentrate, nickel ores, petalite, and raw flue-cured tobacco and fresh produce. — @tupeyo.