The Department of Home Affairs, in conjunction with Zimbabwe’s immigration department at Beit Bridge, has begun working on programmes aimed at effectively managing the border post during the coming festive season, to avoid delays, an official has said.

Zimbabwe’s assistant regional immigration manager in charge of the Beit Bridge Border Post, Mr Charles Gwede, told Mirror that the department would ensure that the border was well manned on both entry and exit points to ease congestion. “We are now preparing for the festive season when we normally handle a huge volume of people passing through. As a decongestion strategy, we want to open up more counters, so that we speed up the clearance process. There will be a full staff complement and we have since suspended all leave days and vacations for our officers,” he said.

Gwede said plans were also underway to temporarily transform one of the clearing halls into an immigration hall, where travellers would be attended during the festive season, to avoid congestion at the main hall. “We are also going to hold a meeting for all stakeholders very soon, so that we explore ways of decongesting the border post under the border efficiency management systems. We are jointly working with our South African counterparts to help speed up the movement of people,” he said.

Gwede also warned travellers against engaging the services of bogus clearing agents. “You will find that during the festive season we normally encounter a problem of bogus clearing agents who approach unsuspecting travellers on the pretext that they intend to assist in speeding up the clearance process, yet in actual fact they will be bent on swindling them out of their money. We therefore urge people using the border to be wary of such criminal elements,” he said. A number of travellers continue to fall prey to the conmen who masquerade as immigration officers.

Gwede said on average the border post handled about 10 000 people, with the number increasing to about 18 000 during the peak period. The Beit Bridge Border Post is the busiest inland port of entry in sub-Saharan Africa and it normally becomes congested during the festive season, when scores of Zimbabweans working in South Africa go home to be with their families during the Christmas period.

Gwede added that, of late, there had been a reduction in the number of border jumpers. He attributed the new development to the scrapping of visa requirements by the South African government in May. Prior to the abolishment of visas, Zimbabweans intending to visit the neighbouring country were required to produce traveller’s cheques amounting to R2 000 and an invitation letter from a person inviting them in South Africa, as part of visa application requirement.