On 06 June 2023, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) issued a joint media statement with the South African Police Service (SAPS), Border Management Authority (BMA), Road Freight Association (RFA), and South African Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF).
The statement to all cross-border transporters reads:
Land border posts are currently experiencing congestion and delays in relation to the cross-border processing of trucks and cargo, with the N4 corridor to Maputo through the Lebombo border post being the most affected.
The SARS, SAPS, BMA, RFA, and SAAFF are working collaboratively and with urgency to manage the challenges that are currently being experienced and to restore border processing to normal as soon as possible.
We call on all affected transporters and truck drivers to assist with this effort, exercise patience and restraint, and refrain from acting in a manner not conducive to maintaining the organised flow of traffic to and through our borders. These include disregarding traffic rules, blocking lanes, and disabling trucks from moving.
Maintaining the orderly and continuous movement of trucks to the border is imperative to enable the processing of trucks to take place on a manual and interim basis pending the resolution of the technical challenges being experienced. In this regard, and to avoid further congestion, we also request trucks without a “Proceed to Border” notification status not to approach the border and not to park at the border while awaiting clearance documents. We urge all traders to use the functionality to preclear consignments.
Stakeholders can be assured that our technical teams are working around the clock to resolve the issues being experienced. Our respective officers are collectively doing their utmost to manually process trucks as fast as possible and we endeavour to maintain law and order on the affected cargo corridors, as well as in border control areas.
We kindly request your assistance in communicating this message to your drivers and business partners and will keep you informed and updated on progress made to remedy the situation.