Beitbridge, one of South Africa’s busiest ports of entry, was subject to regional bloc assessment for operational efficiency, rather than the ability of personnel to prevent illegal entry and exit of people.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) delegation visit to the South Africa/Zimbabwe port of entry (PoE), now firmly under the control of Commissioner Mike Masiapato’s Border Management Authority (BMA) on the southern side of the Limpopo River, had its eye on enhancing border operations in the regional economic bloc’s area of responsibility. Improved and speedier operations align with a July 2013 SADC regional economic integration ministerial task force meeting where SADC ministers committed to improving border efficiencies and trade facilitation at “key border posts”.
The 2024 year-end holiday period saw more than 645 000 what BMA terms “travellers” processed at the Beitbridge PoE on the South African side. This is second to arrivals and departures at OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) with another land PoE, Lebombo to Mozambique third at over 571 000.
The Beitbridge PoE is seen by SADC as an essential component of the north/south corridor connecting shipping ports to industrial productivity hubs across the region. The corridor extends from the port of Durban in South Africa to Kasumbalesa in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), passing through both the Beitbridge and Chirundu one stop border posts (OSBPs) in Zimbabwe.
The regional economic bloc delegation was told by Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (SIMRA) Commissioner for Customs and Excise, Batsirai Chadzingwa, Beitbridge is “a crucial junction”. In addition to serving South Africa and Zimbabwe it facilitates trade with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.
The upgraded Beitbridge PoE in Zimbabwe, visited by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa ahead of him officially taking into service the BMA as the country’s third security service in October 2023, Chadzingwa says has state-of-the-art border infrastructure allowing it on the Zimbabwean side of the border to operate 24 hours a day.
He is reported as telling the SADC delegation since it was re-opened in January four years ago the PoE has capacity to clear up to a thousand trucks a day and “is considered a model for regional studies and a source of inspiration for other initiatives and developments”.
No mention is made in the SADC statement on the assessment visit of security arrangements for both people and cargoes moving in and out of Zimbabwe.
Beitbridge is one of six PoEs earmarked by the BMA and the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) for redevelopment. This will see better cross-border management of movement of people, goods and services, improved revenue collection and preventing harmful imports and exports former Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said in November 2023.
The other five are Lebombo, Maseru Bridge and Ficksburg (Lesotho), Kopfontein (Botswana) and Oshoek (Eswatini).
