In a letter dated 06 October 2011 titled “Go-Live of Release 2 at Beitbridge” Sars made the following announcement: It’s all systems go for the implementation of Customs Modernisation Release 2 at Beitbridge this weekend. We would like to draw your attention to the following: 1. All declarations for Beitbridge should be submitted by 16:00 on Friday 07 October as far as possible, especially relating to emergency products. Please take note: Following implementation, declarations for emergency products, or perishable cargo, need to be submitted as early as possible as all cargo processing closes at 10pm at Beitbridge. If it is an emergency, you can put an estimate weight on the declaration and correct it with a Voucher of Correction (VOC) the next day. 2. All declarations that are submitted after Friday night and do not receive a result message within one hour, must be manually taken to the branch front-end on Saturday morning if entry is urgent or of high priority. However, the entire implementation of the new system should take place within a couple of hours during Friday night and be up and running in time for business on Saturday morning. 3. Release 2 operational features at Beitbridge include: • Paper supporting documents will no longer be accepted at Beitbridge. It will soon become compulsory for traders to submit all supporting documents electronically. Traders are advised to make use of free software provided by service providers, called e@syScan, which will enable them to submit documents speedily from the comfort of their home or office computers. • Traders will also be able to bring supporting documents to either of the following centres: o The Doringkloof bulk scanning facility (7 Protea Street, Block C, Doringkloof). o The bulk scanning facility in Alberton (New Redruth campus, McKinnon Crescent). o The Durban Sars Taxpayer Service office (201 Dr Pixlie Ka Seme Street, Durban). o The Cape Town bulk scanning facility at the back of the current Customs Client Interface office (Ground Floor - P166 building, on the corner of Lower Long and Jetty streets). Please remember: You should only submit supporting documents for Beitbridge when requested to do so by a system-generated notification or when the declaration is manually submitted through the Service Desk or Pigeon Hole notification. No supporting documents can be submitted without a case number. • New Customs Status Codes currently applied at various other Customs offices will become applicable in the case of Beitbridge • The DA74 form will be replaced with system-generated release notifications • Centralisation of all back-end processing • Enhanced vehicle movement control at the border post In terms of the enhanced flow of commercial vehicles at the Port, which was communicated in a previous letter, more information will be available at the Port itself. If there are any issues during go-live, please contact your bureaux first as they have existing escalation channels with Sars. However, if there are any operational issues that need to be dealt with urgently, we have made available on the Customs Modernisation website the specific escalation process to be followed during and after the implementation period. These details are available in English, Afrikaans, Venda, Shona and Ndebele and will only be applicable until 1 November 2011. And finally, please make use of the above website if you need any information on Customs Modernisation as all relevant letters, guides, charts and other documents can be found here.