More than 60 New Limpopo Bridge (NLB) employees have downed tools in protest over the unhygienic conditions at Beit Bridge border post, amid fears of contracting the deadly cholera epidemic, Mirror has established.

The chairperson of the workers committee, Mr Silas Matewa, said they had not reported for duty since Thursday last week, because of poor sanitary facilities at Beit Bridge border post where the organization operates from. He blamed the company for not addressing the situation, despite raking in millions in foreign currency through toll fees. “We resolved to stop coming to work because of health concerns. What is worrying us is that the management is not even making any effort to address the problem, yet we are generating a lot of money every day. In fact, we call this gross negligence where you find people working under unhealthy and unhygienic conditions, thus exposing us to the cholera epidemic,” he said.

Matewa said constant sewer bursts and non-functional toilets at Beit Bridge Border post posed a health hazard to both employees and scores of travelers passing the border post.

“We are approaching the festive season and the volume of human and motor traffic is therefore bound to increase, which means more delays due to queues and, in that case, people will obviously need to use toilets constantly,” he said.

However, the toilets at border post have been closed, following the outbreak of cholera in the border town. Up to now, they have not been fixed.

The workers are also demanding to be paid in South African currency arguing that the organization was generating enough foreign currency through toll fee collection. The workers have reportedly rejected an increment in local currency, saying it was worthless.

The latest development has further compounded congestion at the busiest inland port of entry in sub-Saharan Africa, due to a shortage of manpower to control the movement of traffic. This has resulted in long, winding queues of trucks spilling over into the South African side of the border.

When Mirror visited the border post, the company’s shift managers had a torrid time as they frantically battled to control a huge volume of traffic. The organization has since hired the services of security guards to help man the toll gates at both the exit and entrance gates.

NLB (Pvt) Ltd is a subsidiary of the New Limpopo Project Investment (NLPI), the owners of the Limpopo toll bridge that links South Africa and Zimbabwe. The bridge was built by an Italian under a build, operate and transfer (BOT) concept and was jointly opened by former South African president Mr Nelson Mandela and his Zimbabwean counterpart Mr Robert Mugabe in 1995.