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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
Officials at Beitbridge Border Post cleared 105 762 travellers between Zimbabwe and South Africa during the Easter holiday, which represents a decline of 759 people from the same period last year, official statistics have shown. Human traffic through the port of entry has started normalising following the busy holiday.

Assistant regional immigration officer-in-charge of Beitbridge, Mr Nqobile Ncube, said the department had deployed adequately to ensure smooth flow of traffic during the holidays.

He said they had cleared 59 400 entries and 46 362 departures between Wednesday last week and Monday night.
“The situation at the border is manageable and everything is going according to plan,” said Mr Ncube.
“We implemented a raft of measures to deal with increased traffic during the Easter holidays.

“We had a relative decline of about 759 people this year. We believe that some of the people could not travel pending the finalisation of their Zimbabwe Exemption Permits.
“In 2017, we handled a total of 106 521, including both arrivals and departures.”

Mr Ncube said the department of immigration created a special compliance unit to deal with cases of child smuggling, which he said was rife during school holidays.

“The unit will be focusing mainly on child smuggling in and around the border post,” he said.
“In addition, they have the mandate to bring to account all child smugglers, while at the same time ensuring that the minors are kept in safe custody pending reunification with their bona fide parents.

“We also have special appeal to parents for them to always carry requisite documents, including valid passports, affidavits and unabridged birth certificates (showing names of father and mother).”

Mr Ncube said the department was using most of the strategies (for clearance) it applies during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Traffic, he said, had been separated into buses, visitors, returning residents and commercial to ensure that traffic was cleared efficiently.

Mr Ncube said travellers were directed to the relevant service points as they entered the border post. Usually, 15 000 travellers are cleared daily at Beitbridge, with the figures rising to 30 000 during peak periods.
The figures include both arrivals and departures.