Border Crackdown Leaves Buses Stranded at Beitbridge
Scores of buses remain stranded at the Beitbridge Border Post today as authorities intensify inspections on undeclared goods, disrupting travel and business operations.
Officials from Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) are conducting thorough searches, ensuring that items such as chairs and desks suspected to be commercial cargo are properly declared.
“These chairs and tables belong to one person. They are commercial goods and should be transported by trucks, not buses and they were not declared,” one officer told New Ziana.
Bus drivers revealed that it is common practice for goods owners, based in South Africa, to send merchandise via buses to recipients in Zimbabwe.
“These chairs are going to Harare, but the owner is in Pretoria. This operation is slowing our business,” another driver said.
On the other hand, truck owners are indifferent about this operation as it may be an answered prayer for them.
“A bus is faster and does not require import permits or licences as is the requirement when goods are transported by truck as commercial consignments. Because of these advantages, clients prefer buses,” said one transporter.
“Of late, most of our clients have avoided us and turned to buses, and business has been low.”
Other passengers with small lagguages have also been affected, with some reporting long delays. “We arrived on Saturday evening, and our bus only reached the inspection bay today. I am exhausted,” said one frustrated traveler.
The operation is believed to be led by Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), with ZIMRA enforcing stricter regulations requiring all goods to be declared and banning the transportation of commercial cargo by passenger buses.
The exercise comes after reports that buses were initially turned back outside the border by ZACC, raising questions over coordination between authorities.
Official comment from both ZIMRA and ZACC are yet to come. NewZiana
