Zim 'go slow' clogs up Beitbridge border

A go-slow by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) held up import and export trucks at the Beitbridge border post for up to three days last week, according to Brian Kalshoven, MD of the Beitbridge Border Clearing Agency. A road transport operator with an office in Messina told Kalshoven there had been delays for both incoming and outgoing trucks at the Zim side of the border post. “He said that a transit of the whole border post was taking 2-3 days. There are queues at both the Zimra offices and at the export scanner on their side.” According to a Voice of America (VOA) Studio 7 report last week, Zimra had reportedly dispatched a team from its loss and control department to investigate the development. Trucks were blocking both the exit and entry sides of the border, it added, and some were accusing Zimra of insisting on carrying out long searches without adequate staff to carry out the task. Pumula legislator and member of the parliament’s transport portfolio committee, Albert Mhlanga, told VOA the problem at the border post could also be a result of corruption by some government officials. The normal timing for export trucks to clear Beitbridge is usually about half a day on the SA side, and – with duties and levies and the like –it takes about one and a half days on the Zimbabwe side. But the go-slow has doubled that. And there is no indication when that will end.