A long-standing conflict between Zimbabwean cross border taxi operators and the Musina taxi operators has culminated into a raging war, with operators allegedly mounting illegal roadblocks along the N1 Highway between Beitbridge and Musina, Mirror has established.

The South African taxi operators who spoke to Mirror accused their Zimbabwean counterparts of invading their territory and snatching customers. "These Zimbabwean taxi drivers are actually making business difficult for us by snatching away our customers and at the end of the day we gain nothing. What makes it worse is that most of those vehicles do not have permits to operate as taxis," said a Musina taxi driver, Mmalo Tlou.

Some Zimbabwean cross-border taxi operators said that on being stopped by their rivals, they were either forced to pay R20 for each passenger ferried or offload the passengers’ luggage, while others told Mirror that they were also ordered to pay a "spot fine" of R1000 as some form of punishment for "illegally" plying the route.

"These people (South African taxi operators) are making life difficult for us and you will find that in most cases we would have brought in the passengers from Zimbabwe on their way to Musina, but only to be intercepted and forced to pay R20 for each person aboard or else the passengers are forced to disembark and their luggage is offloaded," said a Zimbabwean taxi operator, who declined to be named.

When Mirror visited a local taxi rank in Beitbridge on Tuesday from which most Zimbabwean cross-border taxi operators operate, morale was very low. They expressed concern and called on the South African authorities to intervene. "There has always been a misunderstanding between us and the South African taxi operators over the same issue, but this time it is really getting out of hand and we are now appealing to the South African authorities to do something about this issue, particularly when it comes to the mounting of illegal roadblocks by these South African taxi operators," said Mr Michael Ndou of Beitbridge.

Another cross-border taxi driver, Mr Charles Ndlovu, said the move by South African taxi drivers was aimed at frustrating them. "These guys (Musina taxi operators) are only after frustrating us. After all, the people that we will be ferrying would have boarded our taxis in Beitbridge," he said.

Most of the passengers at the centre of controversy are Zimbabwean shoppers, mostly from Beitbridge town, who frequent the border on a daily basis to buy groceries and building materials among other necessities in short supply in the neighbouring country.

A Musina-based businessman, Mr J Naidoo, expressed concern at the latest development, saying this was likely to impact negatively on business in the border town. He said a bulk of the business in Musina comes from Zimbabweans. "This is a serious issue, especially when we are to look on the side of business where we are getting the bulk of business from the Zimbabweans who do their shopping here. We don’t want these people to be caught up in the cross-fire because of these so-called taxi wars," he said.

Contacted for comment, the Musina SAPS spokesperson, Const Deborah Bob, said she was not aware of the latest development. She promised, however, to investigate the matter at the time of going to press.