Recent ruling slows down Beitbridge traffic flow

THE BEIT Bridge border post appears to be the main exception to the generally fluid flow of traffic through SA’s borders, in the view of AMR Logistics’ Florence Ross. “That’s where we find the biggest delays,” says Ross, “largely due to a new regulation enforced late last year. “In the past you could clear a vehicle simultaneously on both sides of the border. The Zimbabwean customs authorities however changed things late last year and now you have to clear the vehicle out of South Africa and physically take the customs release across the border to their Zimbabwean counterparts who will only then start clearing the cargo.” This means that instead of an average standing time of two days, cargo now takes 4-5 days to clear. Go-slows have caused additional problems, says Ross, and these generally involve the Zimbabwean rather than SA customs officials. AMR regularly transits several border posts – Beitbridge, Komatipoort, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia – and has few complaints about the general efficiency. "From time to time there are problems on the Botswana route when one of the ferries is out of commission and that causes delays. But for the rest of the time it's fairly a smooth flow. "With Mozambique having now joined the SADC, traffic flow on that route has also speeded up," she added.