Beitbridge ‘disaster zone’ returns to normality

The Beitbridge customs post was a disaster zone for commercial truckers over the festive season with queues of trucks kilometres long on both sides of the SA-Zimbabwe border. “It was the longest lines of trucks I’ve seen in 30 years,” said Brian Kalshoven, of Beitbridge Border Clearing Agency. It was, of course, holiday time, with thousands of members of the public trying to get home for Christmas – and the usual jam-up of people at the immigration posts. But this shouldn’t directly affect truck movement. However, Kalshoven severely criticised the fact that the border post officials were queuing up cars and trucks in the same lines. This, he told FTW, meant that delays at immigration stopped the movement of lots of the cars, with the trucks getting locked up in the same traffic snarl-up. “Apart from that, there were all sorts of stories about problems at the customs on the SA side, then the Zimbabwe side,” he added. “But that’s all it was. Stories about a problem, but no answers.” The problem, though, has happily now been overcome – and the border post has returned to normality. “There does, however, seem to be some sort of on-going check of illegal immigrants, or similar,” Kalshoven told FTW, “with immigration officials stopping vehicles – particularly taxis – at checkpoints before the border. “But this isn’t bothering the truckers, and commercial vehicles are going through the border port smoothly.”