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Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
Travellers using the Beitbridge Border Post yesterday commended the Government for turning around the way of doing business at the country’s busiest inland port where the flow of traffic has become seamless even during peak periods.

In previous years, travellers would, during major holidays, experience long delays and congestion as they sought to enter or leave the country.

However, under the new order, provided they have the correct documents, travellers are spending less than 30 minutes to process clearance at the border.

More workers and service points were opened at the border from December 10 to January 10 to deal with a surge in seasonal traffic.

At it stands, travelers are being cleared at three terminals, which include the freight, bus and light vehicle section.

More than 400 000 people used the border during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays with fewer challenges.

Since Monday night, southbound traffic had peaked with the Department of Immigration indicating it was clearing an average of 12 000 people daily on departures.

In separate interviews, the travellers said they were experiencing a new dawn at the border.

“We are happy with the state of affairs, where there are fewer touts and the flow of traffic is clearly defined and traffic controllers have become handy in directing people to the correct terminals,” said a motorist Mr Davis Nkomo.

“Previously, there would be chaos at the border around this time of the year due to limited resources. We appreciate what the Government and its partners have done at this border.”

Another motorist, Mr Betwell Chimuka said he was impressed with the new work ethic among the border workers.

He said for those motorists with proper documentation, the transition process had become easier while they were still a few who were yet to get accustomed to the electronic Temporary Import Permit (eTIPs) system.

The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) introduced the eTIPs system to speed up the processing of foreign registered vehicles going through the border to cut the time motorists would take working through the system manually.

“We have strategically deployed enough manpower at the border to clear the seasonal traffic,” said the Regional Immigration Officer in charge of Beitbridge Mr Joshua Chibundu.

“The volumes of traffic are high, especially at night, but we are managing and every border stakeholder is playing their part as per our plans. On January 3, we cleared over 12 000 departures and we anticipate the number to increase by Sunday when we have last minute travellers.”

He discouraged travellers from using third parties or conmen to process their clearances to avoid unnecessary inconveniences.

Mr Chibundu said, together with other security agencies they had adequately deployed manpower to deal with all issues of criminality at the port of entry.

Zimborders Consortium chief executive officer Mr Francois Diedrechsen said they were on top of the situation.
“Southbound return traffic has begun, commercial volumes still low as factories generally are still shut, but all in all traffic is flowing smoothly. We are constantly working with the South African authorities to address arising bottlenecks as and when necessary,” he said. -@tupeyo