Beitbridge infrastructure is on the verge of collapse, warns Zimbabwe

The Beitbridge infrastructure will collapse by mid 2009 if nothing is done. And both governments are aware of this,” says Angeline Mashiri, the head of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) at Beitbridge. “I have already written to get authority to use the old bridge for vehicle traffic again; we are now just waiting for the bridge to be inspected. “Depending on the recommendation of the inspectors, we have a number of options on how to utilise the bridge. We can separate the north and southbound traffic via the old and new bridge or, if we cannot run commercial traffic on the old bridge, we can run it on the new bridge and use the old bridge for private traffic. “Processes are not the problem, infrastructure is. As long as we do not have four lanes to South Africa and four lanes to Zimbabwe we will have problems. Currently all lanes convert into one which is a major cause of congestion.” Mashiri also notes that the lack of pre-clearance and adequate parking for commercial vehicles on the South African side is a major problem. “Traffic should flow continuously. We can move 30 cars, 20 empty trucks and 20 loads from Zimbabwe but then we have to wait for parking spaces to become available on the South African side or all the traffic gets stuck on the bridge. We currently have guys with walkie-talkies on the bridge to let us know when there are parking spaces for trucks. “All trucks, except for those originating locally, have to be precleared in Harare for Zimbabwe or else they are turned back at the border post. But this is not the case for South Africa and they are therefore not ready for the trucks from our side. The ideal would be for all trucks to have pre-clearance for both sides of the border as this will ease congestion considerably. “On the part of Sars and Zimra, we have really tried and I am getting all the co-operation I need. What is not spread over the 24 hours that we are open is the movement of trucks. There is a need for some form of professionalism from all stakeholders. The industry needs to complement each other. “Agents must get up if they are phoned at two in the morning and a truck is waiting or otherwise the transporters need to go to someone else who will. Mismanagement in the offices of transporters should not become the problem of customs.”