Agents issue legal challenge to Beitbridge Customs

Pressure applied to force agents to open for longer Alan Peat THE CUSTOMS authorities at Beitbridge border post - the main road artery between SA and Zimbabwe - have accused clearing agents at the border of stifling the effects of the border post’s new 24-hour opening. One agent told FTW that the customs controller had gone on local radio saying that the clearing people were spoiling the 24-hour opening by only opening during the business day and delaying the movement of trucks customs-cleared during the night-time hours. “This,” said Brian Kalshoven, m.d. of Beitbridge Border Clearing Agency and local chairman of the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF), “is not true. “Since the new 24-hour ruling came into place, we have all stayed open for 16-hrs a day - from 06:00 to 22:00.” There is minimal movement of vehicles during the remaining night-time hours, he added, making it utterly non cost-efficient to have premises and staff laid on during the eight hour period. The present position of having a member of staff on night-time stand-by at a cell phone number is sufficient for the cause, according to Kalshoven. “The first night that they opened for 24 hours there were only four trucks cleared during that eight hour gap. With these sort of minimal numbers, it really is a case of customs making a mountain out of a molehill.” But customs is determined to apply pressure on the clearing agents to get them to extend their hours of opening and are now threatening to hit them with a section of the Customs Act, which Kalshoven claims is being misinterpreted. “Customs intends to penalise trucks which come in at or after 22:00 and are not moved on within an hour of being cleared by customs.” But, after taking legal advice, Kalshoven told FTW that customs’ reading of the specific section being applied is wrong. “The section of the act refers only to ships and aircraft,” he said, “and legal opinion is that it cannot be applied to the trucks standing at the border post after clearing.” The next step in this on-going debate could only be customs retracting their threat and declaring the section unenforceable - or trying to enforce it at their own risk. “We must now wait and see whether they will try to enforce their will that we should work for 24 hours,” he added. Kalshoven also rejects the customs controller’s other broadcast threat that if clearing agents wouldn’t stay open all night, then customs would take over their functions. “How they would do that I don’t know,” he said. “There’s no way in hell they would be able to handle all the documentation and procedures that we do with their limited knowledge and experience of our side of the clearing business.”