Disunity sabotages smooth border operation

Parking is the biggest issue on both sides of the Beitbridge Border Post, according to Ian Cooper, a director of Cargo Services and representative of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff). “On the South African side there is parking for only 70 trucks, of which ten to 15 bays are already used by vehicles that have been impounded by customs - but we are doing more than 600 a day. There are old houses which were supposed to be demolished to make way for 200 vehicles but this hasn’t been done. Trucks don’t have place to park and therefore drivers disappear and we have to look all over town for them. “In addition, Beitbridge is the busiest border post in Africa but Sars only has 83 staff members. There seems to be no productivity in customs and no urgency.” Lin Botha, managing director of Sediba Clearing and also a SAAFF representative, adds that before you even get to the gate you have four separate stops, including customs, the police and anti-smuggling checks which all wastes more time. Depending on your cargo, you can also be checked separately by the departments of health and of agriculture. The question is why these different departments cannot work together and check the goods simultaneously at a single stop? “Every government department wants their finger in the pie and good luck with trying to get them to work together,” is Botha’s response. “Unfortunately accreditation and pre-clearance doesn’t stop you from having to get these checks and therefore doesn’t speed up releases. The idea of a holding area is by far the better idea – it is even better than a one-stop border post.”