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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
More than 708 000 travellers passed through Beitbridge Border Post during the just ended festive season after authorities put in place border efficiency and management systems.

Official figures from the Department of Immigration show that a total of 375 956 travellers inclusive of returning residents and tourists entered the country from South Africa between December 5 last year and last Sunday.

During the same period 332 223 people travelled to South Africa via the border post, which is Sadc’s busiest inland port of entry, bringing the total figure to 708 179 travellers.

The assistant regional immigration officer-in-charge of Beitbridge, Mr Nqobile Ncube said they cleared 24 000 people daily during peak periods and 14 000 off peak.

The Herald understands that the surge in entries through Beitbridge in the last three years is a result of the confidence travellers have in the level of efficiency and organisation among border authorities.

“A turnaround plan has been successfully implemented and it brought on board all stakeholders including traffic sections from ZRP and Beitbridge Municipality to avoid the problem of traffic jams in Beitbridge town,” said Mr Ncube.

He said some of the measures employed to ease the flow of traffic include the re-organisation of the border, where traffic is separated into pedestrians, motorists, buses, commercial vehicles and visitors.

He said they had deployed adequate staff to deal with the increase in human and vehicular traffic during the festive season.

The official said though they had witnessed an upsurge in South Africa-bound traffic between January 4 and 6 the situation was returning to normalcy.