Bogus customs officers dupe truckers at Beitbridge

Several arrested in police swoop LEONARD NEILL BOGUS CUSTOMS and clearing agents and their touts have been arrested ‘by the score’ in a police swoop at the Beitbridge border post, according to locally based police chief Andrew Dzaramba. “We are clearing up the situation at the border and will continue to weed out these criminal elements,” he says. The clampdown was launched after numerous complaints had been received from truck drivers and owners. Touts initially approached drivers held up in lengthy queues and offered to get a customs officer to come to them on payment of a fee, to help them jump the queue. In this manner, drivers were told, they would get border clearance much faster. But after paying up and having their cargo ‘inspected’, drivers found the clearance papers given to them to be false when attempting to pass through officiaL posts. No trace of the offenders could then be found. Now, says Supt. Dzaramba, almost all employees working at the border wear uniforms to distinguish them from any loiterers. This has resulted in less congestion which had become commonplace with trucks and private travellers able to pass through much faster.