‘Logistical luggage’ was once a thriving contraband practice by cross-border passenger buses, ‘assisting’ shippers to move certain goods more effectively by avoiding port delays, border bottlenecks, customs snags and non-tariff barriers.
But ‘alternative transport’ merchants and smuggle syndicates have figured out that conventional road freight assets can be co-opted into their game of illicit logistics.
In a message sent to the Transit Assistance Bureau (Transist), Mike Fitzmaurice, the regional vice president of the African Union’s Organisation for Transport and Logistics, cautioned the overborder haulage industry about contraband cargo coercion.
He said: “Please take note that criminal syndicates who used to target passenger buses travelling between South Africa and Zimbabwe for their dirty work of smuggling and unlawful activities have switched their focus away from buses and bus drivers to truck drivers.”
He said that in the space of a month, he had seen two cases where truck drivers had been approached to carry out unlawful activities, resulting in trucks being impounded.
Fitzmaurice appealed for awareness about the risks related to drivers getting coerced into carrying smuggled goods, recommending that drivers should be warned about the consequences of carrying contraband – “instant dismissal and/or jail time.”
Talking to Transist members, he said: “Over and above this, it places you as the transporter in a very difficult position of trying to get your truck released without penalties if you can prove your non-participation in the activities of the drivers.
“Otherwise, you will face heavy penalties or the seizure of your truck for auction.”
Fitzmaurice said road freight operators should make sure they have disciplinary codes of conduct for their drivers and that their drivers fully understand the consequences of carrying contraband cargo.
Last month, he told Freight News: “We know of a certain truck park – immediately north of the border – where goods are being assembled for movement north into Zim.”
Because of the thriving practice of illegal goods entering Zimbabwe and the role some truck drivers fulfil in freight contraband across the country, authorities are clamping down on smuggling, randomly stopping trucks for security searches at checkpoints along the country’s central highway through Harare.
Unfortunately, checkpoints often lack adequate capacity to deal with cargo handling, indiscriminately causing delays for supply chain service providers not involved in contraband activities.
