The border crossing of Chirundu between Zimbabwe and Zambia, usually one of the most free-flowing transits on the north-south route into the Copperbelt, was this morning bottlenecking on the southbound lane.
According to information received from cross-border transporters via the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta), the queue was 6.9 kilometres long at one stage.
Although a backup north of the Zambezi River was also reported, Fesarta’s Kage Barnett confirmed that truck traffic was essentially backing up south of the border.
One transporter complained that it was taking about two hours to get through Chirundu, a crossing with one-stop border post services in place which has stood as a beacon for border transit efficiencies on the routinely problematic route.
At the time of posting this report, the cause of the back-logging had not been established.
