The movement of both human and vehicular traffic at the Beit Bridge border post has improved tremendously on the South African side in the last few days, following a review of operational strategies by the country’s home affairs department.

The latest development follows a recent meeting between the Zimbabwean and South African border authorities. The meeting was held on Wednesday, following an outcry over the delays and congestion encountered by travellers on the South African side of the border.

In the last two weeks, the situation at the border post had turned chaotic as South African immigration authorities were failing to cope with an increased volume of travellers. Zimbabwean travellers and those from neighbouring countries such as Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Zambia were affected the worst.

Zimbabwe’s assistant regional immigration manager in charge of Beit Bridge Border Post, Mr Charles Gwede, told Limpopo Mirror: “We had a very fruitful meeting last  Wednesday with our South African counterparts where we sought to address the problem of delays in the movement of traffic between our borders. They indicated to us that they had challenges regarding their staffing issues as some of their officials were attending an in-house training programme. They assured us, however, that they had introduced a number of changes in their operations, so that they are aligned with movement trends at the border posts," he said.

He said that during the meeting it was agreed that both Zimbabwe and South Africa would review their strategies constantly.