Daylight-only driving policy hinders flow of traffic at Beitbridge

"If all of our resources were utilised over 24 hours then not much would need to be done to ease the congestion at Beitbridge,” says Rudi Kitching, the head of customs at Beitbridge Border Post. “Beitbridge is a 24-hour border post facility and our customs officials work in shifts to ensure there is a continuous clearance of cargo so that traffic can flow. Unfortunately transport operators have instructed their drivers not to drive at night so, as soon as it gets dark, they disappear into one of the overnight parks and they do not even attempt to get clearance until the next day. “The customs officers who work the night shift then have very little to do and the next day there is even more work for the day shift. We do not have too few people to do the work; they are just not being utilised optimally due to the stated operating hours. “If you improve the infrastructure at the border post by building more lanes or an additional bridge, then we can go back to limiting the hours that the border post is open. We need to look at all parties, including drivers, agents, customs, immigration and everyone else to resolve the problems,” Kitching notes. While transport operators agree that they do have a policy that drivers should not drive at night due to the high risk of accidents, they are however adamant that this does not include the driver being unavailable to clear customs at night. Tony Bouwer, who works with both Professional Consolidators and Fourway Haulage, says that the problem exists because clearing agents keep office hours. “When Beitbridge became a 24- hour border post the agent agreed to work from seven to ten, but a lot of them are not coming to the party, both on the South African and Zimbabwean side. The agents are knocking off at four and while Zimra is processing documents throughout the night, it is not working as well on the South African side.”