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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
A gang of thieves has besieged the State warehouse at Beitbridge Border Post, which was burnt down in January, and are targeting copper cables and related products under the debris.

In January this year, property worth approximately $190 000 was destroyed when the warehouse on the commercial exports section caught fire.

The cause of the fire is still being investigated.

It is also understood that the warehouse was loaded with an assortment of goods intercepted (from travellers) for non-compliance with customs laws during the past 18 months.

Investigations by The Herald reveal that so far eight people have been arrested at the border for stealing copper cables and related products from the damaged warehouse.

They were arrested in the last six weeks and have been taken to court charged with theft. In most cases the suspects were being caught by guards employed by a private security company hired by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to beef up security.

Those who have been arrested and convicted of theft at the local magistrate’s court are Daniel Sibanda, Bumanu Mudau, Stephen Simango, Mlambo Munashe, Kennias Mlambo, Munyaradzi Mlambo and Nicholas Moyo.

They were given prison sentences of between three and 12 months.

Matabeleland South police spokesman Chief Inspector Philisani Ndebele could not give the latest statistics on those who have been arrested at the border, but said theft of copper cables was common in the area.

“I can’t give statistics at the moment. However, we have been arresting a number of suspects linked to theft of copper cables around the province,” he said.

Sources close to the border town alleged that it was apparent the suspects were fully aware of the goods that were burnt down in the warehouse in January this year.

“It appears these people have full knowledge of the nature of goods which were being kept at that warehouse,” he said.

“In addition, it is important for Zimra to secure their properties to avoid the recurrence of such cases,” said a source who preferred anonymity.”

The warehouse on the export side becomes the fourth one to go up in smoke after a fire attributed to an electrical fault.

So far, three State warehouses at Beitbridge have been burnt under unclear circumstances since 2014.

However, a fourth warehouse was in July 2016 looted and burnt by hooligans calling themselves Combined Beitbridge Residents’ Association.

These were demonstrating against the implementation of Statutory Instrument 64, which removed specified goods from the open general import licence (OGIL).

A total of 71 people were arrested in connection with the incident which resulted in 35 cars in and around the State warehouse being burnt.

At the moment Zimra is relying on two makeshift warehouses at Beitbridge.

The revenue authority has since committed $250 000 to repair damage caused by storms at the border this year, excluding the damaged warehouses.

Zimra’s head of communications Mr Francis Chimanda said recently: “The State warehouses, which were destroyed by fire, will not be repaired. Rather they will be replaced by new ones that will be built under the Beitbridge Redevelopment Project, which has just commenced.”