Zimpapers Logo

Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
The Department of immigration recorded a marked decline in the movement of people through Beitbridge Border Post after many travellers opted to stay in the country during the harmonised elections, which were held on Monday. Border sources said the number of people passing through the country’s and Sadc’s busiest port entry started dwindling a week before the Election Day.

It is understood that an average of 15 000 people including arrival and departures use the Beitbridge Border Post daily and the figure shoots to 30 000 during the peak periods. Statistics from the Department of Immigration show that a total of 8 084 people used the border on Election Day.

The Assistant Regional Immigration officer in charge of Beitbridge Mr Nqobile Ncube said the department was prepared to handle any increase in traffic during the elections period. We are prepared to deal with any increase in traffic. At the moment the volume of people using the border is relatively low.

“According to our statistics, on July 30 we handled total of 8 084 travellers including 4 051 (Entries) and 4 033 (Exits). As we drifted towards the elections we would clear at least 6 000 arrivals per day,” he said. He said the situation at the border had started returning to normalcy. Official figures on the human and vehicular traffic could not be readily available from South Africa yesterday although that country’s Department of Home Affairs deployed 37 more immigration officers from less bus station to Beitbridge to deal with the elections traffic.