Moving freight through Zambia’s road border of Chirundu into Zimbabwe remains a challenge, with slow Covid-19 screening being one of the main reasons for congestion experienced at the border.
According to sources who spoke to Freight News earlier this week, throughput strain experienced at the Port of Durban is forcing a lot of shipping lines to make use of the Port of Beira.
As a result an increasing volume of hinterland truck traffic is making use of the Beira Corridor through Zimbabwe.
Unfortunately it has led to an increase in freight passing through Forbes post between Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
The bottlenecking experienced south of Chirundu, where incoming trucks from the east meet up with traffic on the north-south line between Durban and the copper belt areas of Zambia and the DRC, is also contributing to congestion.
From various conversations with Mike Fitzmaurice, chief executive of the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta), it has become clear that Chirundu has become the biggest stumbling block in the way of cross-border transport in the SADC.
