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Beitbridge Bureau
THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) has come up with a raft of measures to deal with congestion at Chirundu and Beitbridge border posts that involve creating express lanes for critical and transit cargo.

In a statement, Zimra head of communications Mr Francis Chimanda said they had engaged a number of players to cope with increased Covid-19 related traffic at the country’s borders since last week.

“The current traffic situation at Beitbridge Border Post has seen an unprecedented increase of approximately over 100 percent in both import and export movement in the last few days,” he said.

“We are taking steps, in partnership with various stakeholders, to improve the turnaround time. The increase has been largely attributed to the different Covid-19 testing protocols implemented by different countries in the region, which have seen transporters diverting their trucks from some routes to and from South Africa and transiting through Zimbabwe, resulting in the increase in the flow of traffic through Beitbridge.

“This has imposed unanticipated strain on both border infrastructure and human resources for Zimbabwe and neighbouring country border stakeholders.”

Mr Chimanda said some of the measures the organisation was implementing to deal with the congestion and ensure easier movement included the introduction of more queues, fast tracking of maize and other urgent food imports, fuel, explosive materials and empty trucks.

He said they were also engaging various stakeholders to find ways of addressing the challenges through collaboration and teamwork.

Zimra was maintaining a balance between facilitation, revenue collection, enforcing controls and being mindful of the Covid-19 virus.

“We also need to observe protocols that need to be implemented to reduce exposure for clients, employees and our other stakeholders. Zimra continues to engage stakeholders to ensure that our clearance processes and systems are as fluid as possible under the circumstances and the truck flow remains steady and consistently under control.”

Mr Chimanda said they were now clearing an average of 900 trucks at Beitbridge daily compared to the usual 400 prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Countries using Zimbabwe as a transit trade route are Malawi, Tanzania, Angola, Mozambique and Democratic Republic of Congo.