Whenever sub-Saharan trade facilitation comes up for discussion, the North-South Corridor (NSC) linking the Port of Durban with the landlocked copper-mining areas of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo tops the logistics agenda – usually for all the wrong reasons.
Consistently congested, whether it’s the crossing of Beitbridge between South Africa and Zimbabwe or Chirundu between Zim and Zambia, the NSC must be one of the road freight routes in the region where exploitation of hauliers is most prevalent.
What’s unfortunate, especially for transporters and truck drivers relying on the NSC, is that the exploitation usually occurs at the hands of those tasked with protecting them – law enforcement officers.
Kasumbalesa, the last northern crossing on the NSC between Zambia and the DRC, used to hog the headlines for congestion and the resulting brazen criminality of police and soldiers holding hauliers up at gunpoint for cash spoils meant to pay expensive road fees.
These days, especially since the ripple effect of Covid-19 has caused disruption running up and down the NSC, Beitbridge and Chirundu are making a strong claim for ill-gotten gains derived from border graft.
Recently at Beitbridge Metro Police faced an insurrection of sorts when they stood accused of pulling trucks out of the queue stretching almost all the way to Musina and providing ‘preferential treatment’.
Not for free of course, but not all transporters can afford – or want to pay – an ‘escorting’ fee all the way to the border.
As the indignation built up among incorruptible drivers stuck in a queue that sometimes took days to clear, some of them started blocking the way of trucks that were given ‘green-lane’ treatment under blue lights.
In one instance it almost resulted in violence - and the uniformed officers expected to enforce the law but accused of extorting bribes from fed-up drivers, ironically enough, were forced to keep the peace in a situation they had exploited.
Now, higher up the line at the Chirundu crossing into Zambia, Zimbabwe Royal Police (ZRP) officers are accused of doing exactly the same.
According to Mike Fitzmaurice, chief executive of the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta), it’s an old complaint that ZRP officers extract bribes from drivers yet to enter the customs yard.
“They are denying it completely but they are. They are pulling trucks out of the queue and bribing drivers to take them to the front of the queue.”
