Trade held up by politics at Beitbridge

Politics continues to hamper efforts to address the myriad problems that plague the border post at Beitbridge. According to Barney Curtis, executive director of the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta), neither South Africa nor Zimbabwe has come any closer to signing a Memorandum of Understanding that will allow an action plan, drawn up more than a year ago to address some of the problems experienced at the border post, to be implemented. “Beitbridge is a major problem at present with congestion being one of the issues. And none of it will go away until we have the MOU signed.” Identified by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market of East and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the East African Community (EAC) as the main border post to work on, congestion, bribery, infrastructure decay and all round chaos seem to be the order of the day. It is said that Zimbabwe is not willing to sign the MOU due to internal politics while South Africa has not signed the document either as it is not considered a priority at present. “In the meantime trade is being held up by politics,” says Curtis. “The cross-border delays are clearly increasing transport costs.” And says Curtis, the delays have gone up measurably recently. But waiting time is only one of the issues at Beitbridge. The failing infrastructure needs to be addressed sooner rather than later while corruption remains rife.