One-stop to be piloted at Beitbridge this year

The South African Department of Home Affairs has said it will extend its pilot onestop border project to Beitbridge during 2010. A spokesman said that the project had been piloted at the Mozambican border post which until recently had more traffic than Beitbridge. “We are hoping to extend this project to other border posts in 2010 including Beitbridge,” said the spokesman. In the meantime the Common Market of East and Southern Africa (Comesa) opened the first one-stop border post in Africa at Chirundu between Zimbabwe and Zambia in the first week of December. And while teething problems were experienced, Comesa has remained adamant that traffic is flowing much faster through Chirundu. Comesa has pledged its support to SADC to help establish Beitbridge as a one-stop border post.