Trade held up by politics at Beitbridge

Politics continues to hamper
efforts to address the myriad
problems that plague the
border post at Beitbridge.
According to Barney Curtis,
executive director of the Federation
of East and Southern African Road
Transport Associations (Fesarta),
neither South Africa nor Zimbabwe
has come any closer to signing a
Memorandum of Understanding
that will allow an action plan,
drawn up more than a year ago
to address some of the problems
experienced at the border post, to
be implemented.
“Beitbridge is a major problem at
present with congestion being one
of the issues. And none of it will
go away until we have the MOU
signed.”
Identified by the Southern
African Development Community
(SADC), the Common Market of
East and Southern Africa (Comesa)
and the East African Community
(EAC) as the main border post
to work on, congestion, bribery,
infrastructure decay and all round
chaos seem to be the order of the
day.
It is said that Zimbabwe is not
willing to sign the MOU due to
internal politics while South Africa
has not signed the document either
as it is not considered a priority at
present.
“In the meantime trade is being
held up by politics,” says Curtis.
“The cross-border delays are
clearly increasing transport costs.”
And says Curtis, the delays have
gone up measurably recently.
But waiting time is only one of
the issues at Beitbridge. The failing
infrastructure needs to be addressed
sooner rather than later while
corruption remains rife.