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.”