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Thupeyo Muleya

Beitbridge Bureau

The necessary legal measures to open land borders for all ordinary travellers vaccinated against Covid-19 are now being prepared after Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Kazembe Kazembe gave the necessary instruction to the Attorney-General’s office.

Cabinet approved the opening of land borders to normal traffic, with the only proviso being that those going through border posts had to be vaccinated.

For more than 12 months only commercial cargo, returning Zimbabwe citizens and residents coming in, and foreigners going home or Zimbabweans resident in other countries going out have been able to pass through the land borders.

In an interview, the minister said a legal instrument will be gazette in due course.

“This issue was brought to my attention. It has been addressed by way of an order which I signed last week and forwarded to the Attorney-General.

“The order addresses the issue,” he said.

Although the executive decision to reopen borders to normal traffic has been made, the borders remain closed while the legal order is being prepared, giving time for the immigration authorities to prepare for what is expected to be a large boost in cross-border traffic.

Already, border authorities in Matabeleland South, who have the major Beitbridge and Plumtree border posts to manage, have started working on efficiency and compliance management in line with the new order.

The regional Immigration officer-in-charge of Beitbridge, Mr Joshua Chibundu, said, “We have always been ready to deal with any volume of traffic just like what has been happening before.”

“At the moment it’s business as usual, and we will make adjustments where necessary when the new standard regulations kick-in. But so far, we haven’t had issues with travellers being turned away for falling out of the essential services bracket,” said Mr Chibundu.

Under present anti-Covid-19 restricted travel the immigration authorities were handling daily an average of 30 buses with Zimbabweans returning from South Africa, and 600 travellers, including truck drivers and those with exemptions, daily.

This is a far cry from the average of 15 000 a day, peaking at 35 000 a day, before the Covid-19 pandemic and the tighter travel regulations.

Matabeleland South Provincial Medical Director Dr Rudo Chikodzore said recently the medical teams will continue using tight screening and surveillance measures at the ports of entry in line with the set Covid-19 protocols.

“We have been very busy during the lockdown and we are ready to deal with huge volumes of traffic.

“Adjustments will be made depending on the context of the situation on the ground,” she said.