To add to the woes of current delays experienced at the Beitbridge Border Post, especially on the northbound lane, the Transit Assistance Bureau (Transist) has heard that the South African Revenue Service (Sars) system is down.
That’s according to a driver reporting back from the border this morning.
Trade flows through the routinely congested transit have been a nightmare of late, with processing delays on the Zimbabwean side of the crossing slowing traffic to a trickle.
Now, with Sars also experiencing issues, the queue south of the border is expected to worsen and transporters are advised to make the necessary preparations for a long wait.
News of the system going down, incidentally comes less than an hour after Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter told delegates attending the annual conference of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders that the collector was doing whatever it could to assist trade flows in the region.
* This is a developing story. Although at least one source has refuted reports of systems failure, several drivers at the border have confirmed that nothing much is happening at Sars. At just before 11am this morning, one of the drivers said that he had been waiting since 8am.
** This story was again updated at 17:30 today, September 17. According to a reliable source, the systems failure reported in this particular post was not with Sars. Freight News regrets the error and will endeavour to set the record straight on Monday, September 20, with a follow-up report. What we do know at this stage is that CN1 and CN2 documents are no longer printed at Beitbridge Border Post. We would also like to state that separate attempts to obtain official information from Sars at the time this story was initially posted, proved unsuccessful.