Beitbridge Border Post Congestion A ‘National Embarassment’

Sports and Culture minister David Coltart has called the congestion at the Beitbridge border post between Zimbabwe and South Africa a national embarrassment.

Queues stretching for kilometres on the Zimbabwe end have become a fixture of the holiday calendar at the border. This year however has been a lot worse than usual.

On his Facebook wall Senator Coltart wrote:

We have to move from talk to urgent action ….. this situation needs a massive, urgent effort by both the South African and Zimbabwean governments. If need be, we should be considering the construction of another road to South Africa – for example, the most direct …. route is south through Kezi …. that road needs to be upgraded and a new border constructed over the Shashi and a road constructed through Botswana direct to, say, Martin’s Drift.

However we doubt that will solve much. We are hearing reports from there that our border counterparts on the other end are not processing things with urgency. Some people have even gone on to use the words ‘go-slow’, adding that this may be in a bid to force the hand of their employers for an increase. While there is no public declaration of a go-slow it appears as if this pretty much happens during major holidays with officials taking as much as 30 minutes to clear one individual vehicles.