The decision taken over the weekend by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) to open its problematic Chirundu border into Zambia on a 24-hour basis seems to have had the desired result..
Whereas the north-bound queue at times stretched for almost 30 kilometres into the Hurungwe safari area, a transporter earlier today reported that the truck queue south of the Zambezi River had been completely cleared.
Unfortunately the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZRA), for reasons that remain unclear, has not joined Zimra in Saturday’s decision to embark on a seven-day testing period involving round-the-clock customs facilitation.
That exercise came into effect on Sunday morning at 6am and within 24 hours had substantially shrunk a queue that had been a major cause of concern for cross-border transport companies.
It is now hoped that Zimra will see its way through in keeping the border open for 24 hours for longer than the week-long testing period, or as long as it takes to curb congestion at the notorious choke-point.
Ironically though, part of the reason for the north-bound queue moving with greater ease has to do with ZRA efficiencies north of the border.
Zimra, in comparison, was sticking to strict cargo-scanning protocol for south-bound traffic, said Mike Fitzmaurice, chief executive of the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta).
“They’re scanning each and every truck and container for smuggling and it doesn’t make sense.
"Empty containers you just have to open to see there is nothing inside.
"They’re even checking trucks hauling copper when it’s plain to see nothing is being hidden.”
Unfortunately Zimra’s inflexible attitude to enforcing security and the ZRA’s more pragmatic approach are not helping congestion on Zambia’s side of Chirundu, whereas Zimbabwe, for now, is free of north-bound bottlenecking.
Photographs made available on a Fesarta-run Whatsapp group show a big elephant bull leisurely wondering around a truck park south of Chirundu where trucks, until Sunday morning, were still squeezed in like tightly packed cargo.
North of the river though it was a different story with south-bound traffic being as “slow as a sloth”, a Fesarta member said.
