The Road Freight Association (RFA) has called on the government to urgently intervene to resolve systemic delays that are causing massive truck congestion at the country’s border posts at Oshoek and Lebombo.
RFA CEO Gavin Kelly said on Tuesday that there had been reports that there were “systemic issues and lack of coordination between various authorities” that needed to be resolved to ensure traffic flowed smoothly as soon as possible.
“The efficient and continuous flow of freight through border posts is vital to the sustainability of transporters, the companies whose goods are being transported, and the economy,” Kelly said.
“It is crucial that our borders operate with the least amount of delays and that the congestion and queues that are becoming the norm at certain border posts are resolved as soon as possible,” he said.
The RFA was ready to assist the Border Management Agency (BMA) and Home Affairs to get freight moving swiftly and efficiently across borders, especially at Lebombo and eSwatini, he added.
“The RFA has a very good collaborative relationship with Sars Customs - forged over decades of jointly discussing, identifying and resolving challenges that occur at borders from time to time. The RFA is certain that, together with the relevant role players, the issues can be identified and resolved.”
However, he said the situation was urgent and needed an expedited plan to resolve the causes of the delays before Easter travel added more pressure to the congested border posts.
This comes after Democratic Alliance (DA) MP and spokesperson for home affairs, Adrian Roose, on Sunday called on Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, to address the “unacceptable poor services” that had led to long queues at the border posts.
“In a Home Affairs parliamentary portfolio meeting on March 7, the DA reminded the minister and BMA that there are border posts other than Beitbridge and called for the urgent resolution of issues, specifically those reported at the Eswatini post at Oshoek and Komatipoort/Lebombo border post with Mozambique. Almost three weeks later and the situation has worsened,” Roos said.
Among the problems at border posts were concerns that there was only one operating desk at passport control, problems with faulty generators, a lack of coordination between the BMA and Sars, and poor law enforcement in the kilometre-long queues leading up to the border post.
“These queues stretch for kilometres and residents report that they often can’t leave for work in Malelane/Nelspruit or take their children to school. This cannot be allowed to continue,” Roos said.
He added that Motsoaledi had promised that the BMA would resolve border control and coordination problems, however, it had only created “another entity with millionaire managers and insufficient funding from Treasury for much-needed boots on the ground”.
“These unnecessary delays not only slow trade but badly affect regular travellers and communities around these border posts. The government is aware of the situation but does not seem to care.”
The Department of Home Affairs had not responded to questions at the time of publishing.
