Beitbridge ‘chaos’ cleared up

THE traffic congestion and chaos that had hit Beitbridge border post – over the past two months – has cleared up, officials say.

This comes as several stakeholders, including Transport minister Felix Mhona and the Federation of East, and Southern African Transport Associations (FESATA), have stressed that the recent gridlock had nothing to do with Zimbabwean payment systems and infrastructural bottlenecks.

“The congestion at Beitbridge border post started a few weeks before the opening of the new freight terminal as a result of Covid-19 related relaxations on movement both on the Zimbabwean and South African sides..,” Mhona told a local weekly recently.

Felix Mhona, Transport Minister

“As we are implementing measures to sustainably stem all the challenges… stakeholders must be pleased (to note) that the situation is normalising,” he said, adding the challenges “were regrettable and the government is working flat out… to remedy the situation with a view of improving the situation”.

With the first phase of the US$300 million Beitbridge border post having been opened to the public on October 11, it is an integral part of the 17 year-long build, own and operate concession being managed by ZimBorders Consortium.

And as “teething problems” associated with any new project mounted at the southern entry point – a gateway to Zimbabwe’s US$3 billion economy with South Africa – a high-powered delegation of partnership executives, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and other border agencies descended on Beitbridge for a hands-on strategy to unlock the logjam.

On his part, FESATA chief executive Mike Fitzmaurice said the “exaggerated chaos was caused by a culture of corruption and whereby some people were desperate to bypass automated, and incorruptible compliance systems”.

“The biggest problem… is that most transporters (were) arriving at the border without their paperwork in order and just parking at the border..,” he said.

“…there is an inbred culture… that has been going on for decades where they have been able to cross with unprocessed documents (after) a ‘facilitation fee’,” Fitzmaurice said, adding it was “unfair to blame ZimBorders, as their payment platform was the only such system in place and complaints that it was not working were just nonsense being peddled by self-serving drivers and haulage companies”.

Albert Bere, the Transport Operators Association of Zimbabwe chairman, has not only expressed relief at the latest developments, but said their organisation was “cautiously optimistic that improvements made so far will be sustained”.

“Our scouts on the ground (say) the situation has significantly improved… but we are not certain that the challenges are completely behind us now,” he told The Financial Gazette yesterday.

On the other hand, Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers president Denford Mutashu has confirmed that his industry has already started seeing an improvement in the flow of goods and services as well as positive impacts of order restoration at Beitbridge.

An innovative private-public sector partnership between the Zimbabwe government and Andulusia-led grouping, the Beitbridge rehabilitation project has not only been hammered to “maximise revenue” at the key entry point, but often hailed as a “solution for Zimbabwe by Zimbabweans”.