A long convoy of vehicles, stretching several kilometres towards Beitbridge border post in Musina. The border connects South Africa with Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, the DRC and northern Mozambique. Picture: Camilo Ramada
Against a background of widespread criticism over its handling of the border with Zimbabwe at Beitbridge, the department of home affairs yesterday said traffic was back to normal.
Department spokesperson Siya Qoza, who spoke to The Citizen after verifying the situation with border officials, said congestion at Beitbridge had been cleared and traffic had returned to normal.
“All lanes around the border have been cleared and the border has been easily accessible from the afternoon of 24 December. This means that all travellers through Beitbridge have been processed and cleared,” he said.
Qoza said home affairs worked with the departments of health, defence and police, the SA Revenue Service and the Limpopo provincial government “to resolve the impasse that had led to traffic congestion at Beitbridge”.
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He said the Musina local municipality provided additional holding areas, which enabled vehicles going to the border to be released to travel in manageable numbers.
Organisations representing the country’s transport and freight forwarding industries had previously called for government’s intervention at the border, describing the border post as “an imminent time bomb”.
The organisations said a humanitarian disaster was unfolding at Beitbridge “creating a potential Covid-19 catastrophe, which also threatens a cholera outbreak”.
ALSO READ: Beitbridge border delays cost R88m per week – transport association
Mike Fitzmaurice, CEO of the Federation of East and Southern Africa Road Transport Associations, maintained that Covid-19 regulations “severely compromised the flow of traffic”.
He claimed there was “only one place for testing with a single entry and exit point, creating a massive bottleneck that stretched from Musina on the SA side to the border post – and for more than 20km on the Zimbabwe side”.
In an open letter to Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, the federation and the South African Association of Freight Forwarders said “queue time delays for trucks amounted to R609 million per week” and R2.092 billion to date.
– brians@ citizen.co.za
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