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Thupeyo Muleya-Beitbridge Bureau

 The movement of travellers at the Beitbridge border post remained normal by the end of day yesterday, but immigration officials are expecting a change today.

Both Zimbabwe and South Africa have beefed up staff at Beitbridge to cope with an anticipated surge in travellers over the next 10 days.

On the Zimbabwean side, authorities have also tightened screws on irregular migration activities.

Regional Immigration officer in charge of Beitbridge Mr Joshua Chibundu said his team was ready to get down to business.

“We have deployed enough manpower and as of now we are still clearing normal traffic volumes,” he said.

Last year a total of 52 000 passed through the transformed border post during the Easter holidays. 

On average a total of 12 000 people use the border daily and the figures rise to 30 000 daily at peak periods.

South Africa head of the Border Management Authority Dr Mike Masiapato said this week that they had deployed 400 more workers to busy borders, including Beitbridge. 

South Africa is expecting 1 million travellers to pass through its ports of entry and exit, land, air and sea, during the Easter holidays.

Travellers who spoke in different interviews said they were happy with efficiency levels at the border.

“We didn’t take more than an hour to get cleared. You can’t tell its Easter. Previously we could spend up to 24 hours to cross into Zimbabwe,” said a traveller who identified herself as Mai Susan.

Another traveller, Ms Chipo Moyo, said she has spend less than an hour to cross from both South Africa and Zimbabwe, a process which used to take over half a day in the last five years. 

By the end of the day yesterday, travellers in small groups were seen arriving at the border on foot from South Africa.