Travel chaos hits Beitbridge border post!

(One of the worlds busiest border post, second from US/Mexico border psots)





There have been chaotic scenes at the Beitbridge border post in the last few days, due to the increased volume of human and vehicle traffic.
Beitbridge is among the busiest border posts in the SADC region, with volumes rising to more than 12,000 travellers and 4,000 vehicles a day in the festive season. Annually this amounts to about four million people, one million vehicles and millions of tons of freight.





But with traffic flows hitting record levels in recent years, because of the ever increasing number of Zimbabweans living in South Africa, facilities at the border have proved woefully inadequate.
Some of those using public transport are complaining that they are being asked to pay more than double the normal fee to travel to Zimbabwe from Johannesburg. A single trip to Harare normally costs R300, but bus and kombi operators have increased that to R700 in the last few weeks.
Our Bulawayo correspondent Lionel Saungweme told us as long as there is no infrastructure development at the border post, the congestions will still be witnessed during peak seasons. He said it takes up to five hours to transit the border, with the delays particularly bad during peak holiday periods.
‘The government hasn’t learnt a thing. These things happen year in, year out and nothing has been done to improve or correct the situation,’ Saungweme said.







The border was set to receive a US$100 million facelift, which government said would cut delays by 75 percent. But Saungweme said Finance Minister Tendai Biti recently accused a South African company, contracted to expand the border post, of failing to complete the job.
‘Biti said government contracted a South African Infrastructure Company to modernise the border post, revamping its technology and decentralising clearing systems to curb corruption by Zimbabwe Revenue Authority officials. The minister said the company was contracted to build a new port but has spent 13 months on the job doing nothing,’ Saungweme said





Story by Tichaona Sibanda.