Stanley Kwenda
3 June 2009
Harare — The South African government's removal of visa requirements for Zimbabweans in April was aimed at easing entry for people still reeling from the crisis in Zimbabwe. But, for Alice Kakwindi, Grace Chimhosva and other cross-border traders, entering South Africa has subsequently turned into a nightmare.
On the two occasions that they have visited South Africa's border town of Musina since the relaxation of visa requirements, they spent on average 16 hours trying to clear their goods at the Beitbridge border post. Previously it took them no more than four hours to go through both immigration and customs formalities.
"The process is now very slow. We arrived at one a.m. It's 12 pm the next day and we are still here," Kakwindi told IPS. The two traders make a living from buying and selling whatever goods are in short supply in Zimbabwe's capital of Harare.
Zimbabwe and South Africa's governments signed an agreement last month dropping visa requirements for Zimbabwean passport holders travelling into South Africa. The agreement allows Zimbabweans entry into South Africa on a 90 day pass and permits them to seek employment.
The move is seen as a major move towards the free movement of people in the sub-region.
Since then, business at the Beitbridge border post, the busiest in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, has almost come to a standstill because of the vastly increased numbers of Zimbabweans now visiting South Africa.
South African border authorities say Zimbabweans entering South Africa has more than doubled from 3,000 to 7,000 a day. But the biggest problem is on the Zimbabwean side of the border where travellers are spending on average 10 hours waiting to cross the border.
Although many Zimbabweans are grateful for the lifting of visa restrictions, they feel the move should have been facilitated with the boosting of human resources at the entry points. "The problem is that the move was not backed by an increase in the number of people working at the border," Kakwindi pointed out.
The Beitbridge border post now resembles a big automobile market as long and winding queues of vehicles and people seeking to go through customs clearance have become a common feature. The queues stretch for more than a kilometre and move at a snail's pace.
Many travellers blame the slow pace of business at the border to new measures introduced by the Zimbabwean coalition government. The measures are aimed at plugging incidences of smuggling of goods into the country without payment of duty.
"Such searches are meant to protect fiscal revenue, public health and safety, among others," Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) legal and corporate services commissioner Faith Jambwa told IPS. She added that the physical inspection of goods was a routine part in the clearing of goods that are being imported or exported.
As a result of this new policy, ZIMRA conducts searches on every person crossing into Zimbabwe.
"A lot of people have been smuggling goods into the country without paying duty. They hide their goods under seats in the buses. It is because of such people that this policy has been introduced," said a ZIMRA duty supervisor who asked not to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
The ZIMRA officers take about one hour to search through a single bus crossing the border. He added that border operations have also been affected by a lack of stationery that runs out as a result of the dramatic swelling of traveller volumes. "We often run out of stationery such as clearing and declaration forms," the ZIMRA official told IPS.
Custom and immigration officials at the post complained about being short-staffed to handle searches of all vehicles in compliance with the strict check-up procedures ordered by the new government.
During IPS's visit to the border post, emotions ran high as uncooperative, angry and delayed motorists clash with customs officials.
Zimbabweans attempting to cross into South Africa using their national identity cards made the situation worse. Despite the waiver on visas, the charge for obtaining a passport is still too high for many ordinary Zimbabweans. A regular passport cost 310 dollars, a figure beyond the reach of many in a country where civil servants subsist on a 100 dollar salary monthly.
To make matters worse, operations on the Zimbabwean side of the border are yet to be computerised.
But for Kakwindi and Chimhosva all this means that they now have to reduce the number of occasions that they travel to Musina to purchase goods for resale. "We used to travel twice a month to buy goods for resale but we now dread the border delays. Every time I feel my health is affected by the sleepless nights at the border," Kakwindi told IPS.
Zimbabwe's co-minister of home affairs, Kembo Mohadi, acknowledged the delays at the border. "There are delays but these are being addressed by the increase in staff to meet the growth in people now travelling after the visa waiver," Mohadi told IPS.
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MDC should push for a dramatic reduction in passport fees, shock horror, Giles Mutsekwa is now quiet, guess enjoying his Merc as minister. Why can't they implement some of the things they were promising instead of coming in and implement more draconian laws at the borders. There is Biti for you, is this not a human rights issue when one has to spend 16 hours at the border, yet Finance Minister Biti is quiet.
TD;
Biti, Mutsekwa or any other MDC minister will not say a word about what is going on because this is the only source of foreign currency for the Unity Govt after the imposition of sanctions. They are the ones who campaigned for sanctions and now have to stand between a fire and a frying pan.
When we used to say, please guys "do not campaign for sanctions they will backfire one day", nobody listened. They thought the sanctions will affect others and not them. I have always said that 'A canoe does not know who is King, when it… [Read Full Text]
More lies... Takunya, you have no evidence that anybody from the MDC campaigned for sanctions, so why do you keep promoting your lies? Much like when you said the CIA invented homosexuality, something that has clearly been around for 1000's of years, long before the CIA was even thought of!
Make that lie 39 on the lies of takunya. the list gets longer. The swazi's love their king, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha .What an idiot.
Cde Ndebvu - you keep offering up the same lie time and time again as if you will eventually make it the truth. Either show us the evidence or try and think of something else to say. At least our erstwhile adversary Jallohlaw had several ideas he was prepared to argue his case for; you, in contrast, are one dimensional and thoroughly boring.
All I know is that a few years back visiting Zimbabwe from South Africa required paying some Zimbabwean some money (a bribe) in order to expedite the process.
I can only imagine that it has gotten incredibly worse.
We know Mugabe is still there and people are starving. I'd bet its Zanu PF thugs getting every last widow's mite.
Zimbabwe after independence and now was very beaurocratic to a fault. I see the same thing now with the GNU trying to levy just about any goods coming into Zimbabwe. Foreign currency controls and too much tax on imported good has always been a bad thing for the economy. Zanu-pf just does not get it. Open borders, free flowing goods and services between Zimbabwe and SA are the way to a prosperous Zimbabwe.