In the latest update on the congestion currently being experienced at Beitbridge south of South Africa’s border with Zimbabwe, the queue remains reduced to a double lane of trucks and traffic about a kilometre from the crossing.
According to Mike Fitzmaurice, chief executive of the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta), the double-lane queue was at the weighbridge at 10:30.
From there a single lane of trucks stretched all the way to the China Mall on the outskirts of Musina.
A clearing agent working at the border reported to Fesarta that about 500 trucks had been cleared yesterday.
And although the queue has been reduced by more than one third of the chaotic levels experienced earlier this week when trucks and traffic lined up three abreast right across the N1, the arrival rate at the border still exceeds the clearing rate by at least 100 trucks a day.
Fitzmaurice said at least 600 to 650 trucks arrive at the border each day, compared to the current processing level of 500 a day.
It also remains to be seen whether the current clearing level can be maintained as processes at Beitbridge appear consistently tenuous, with the slightest hiccup often resulting in excessive holdups.
“If clearing continues at the current rate the border is just going to stagnate,” Fitzmaurice said.
“It’s going to take extraordinary effort to contend with the rate trucks arrive at the border and clearing them fast enough.”
He added that, most importantly, it would require complete collaboration between the SA Revenue Service and Zimra, its counterpart in Zimbabwe.
In a poll still active on Freight News, asking whether it’s possible to “save Beitbridge from the corruption and congestion affecting the border”, at least two thirds of respondents answered “no”.
The 64% cynicism rate is offset by a healthy dose of optimism, with 36% of the pollsters thus far saying they believe it’s possible to fix the border.
