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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Manicaland Bureau
Zimbabwe and Mozambique are looking at reviving efforts to expand the processing and handling capacity at the Port of Beira, which was affected by Cyclone Idai, as part of efforts to encourage more businesses to use the port.

The issue was raised at a Joint Economic Forum held between Manicaland and Manica provinces last year, after it emerged that despite Beira being closer to Zimbabwe than Durban, most importers still preferred to use it due to its capacity and efficiency.

Durban is 3 000 kilometres away from Harare, while Beira is nearly 600km away.

Manicaland provincial administrator Mr Edgar Seenza said last week that the issues to do with capacity at the port were affecting the commerce sector and needed to be addressed.

“The Industry, Commerce, Tourism and Culture Cluster had raised concern about the limited handling capacity at Beira,” he said. “There is need for the port to expand on handling and processing capacity and efficiency so that businesses would use the port more than Durban and other ports that are far away.

“However, expansion prospects have been thrown into disarray by devastating Cyclone Idai effects.”

Mr Seenza said the issue would be discussed at the next meeting to see how they could work together.

He said the collaboration efforts between the two countries were also seeking to reduce corruption that was rampant at Forbes Border Post, prejudicing both governments.

“Although corruption cannot be fully eliminated, the two provinces need to join hands and fight corruption at our borders,” said Mr Seenza. “Corruption is a cost to business and a hampering factor to effective economic cooperation.”

Forbes Border Post has been a constant source of headaches for Government, with high levels of congestion recorded at most times.

Last year, Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba instructed the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) to make efforts to reduce the amount of trucks that were waiting for hours or days to be cleared as a result of inefficiencies by officials.

She said the delays were being caused on the Zimbabwean side since Mozambique served transporters within a short period.

Space constraints at the border post were attributed for the pile-up of trucks waiting to be cleared.

Mr Seenza said although the country was still a long way from totally clearing the congestion, Zimra had since put in place measures that had reduced the delays.

“Zimbabwe has segregated an office that deals solely with commercial traffic to expedite clearance processes in addition to enforcement of the pre-shipment clearance requirement,” he said.

Mr Seenza said the establishment of the Mutare Dry Port and use of cargo scanners had also assisted in decongesting the border post.