Daylight-only driving policy hinders flow of traffic at Beitbridge

"If all of our resources were utilised
over 24 hours then not much would
need to be done to ease the congestion
at Beitbridge,” says Rudi Kitching,
the head of customs at Beitbridge
Border Post.
“Beitbridge is a 24-hour border post
facility and our customs officials work
in shifts to ensure there is a continuous
clearance of cargo so that traffic can
flow. Unfortunately transport operators
have instructed their drivers not to drive
at night so, as soon as it gets dark, they
disappear into one of the overnight parks
and they do not even attempt to get
clearance until the next day.
“The customs officers who work the
night shift then have very little to do and
the next day there is even more work for
the day shift. We do not have too few
people to do the work; they are just not
being utilised optimally due to the stated
operating hours.
“If you improve the infrastructure at
the border post by building more lanes or
an additional bridge, then we can go back
to limiting the hours that the border post
is open. We need to look at all parties,
including drivers, agents, customs,
immigration and everyone else to resolve
the problems,” Kitching notes.
While transport operators agree that
they do have a policy that drivers should
not drive at night due to the high risk of
accidents, they are however adamant that
this does not include the driver being
unavailable to clear customs at night.
Tony Bouwer, who works with both
Professional Consolidators and Fourway
Haulage, says that the problem exists
because clearing agents keep office
hours. “When Beitbridge became a 24-
hour border post the agent agreed to work
from seven to ten, but a lot of them are
not coming to the party, both on the South
African and Zimbabwean side. The agents
are knocking off at four and while Zimra
is processing documents throughout the
night, it is not working as well on the
South African side.”