South Africa introduces measures to curb Beitbridge congestion

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South Africa has introduced a host of measures to address congestion at the Beitbridge Border Post that has seen commercial truck drivers spending at least 11 days in queues.

SADC’s busiest port of entry handles at least 1 200 haulage trucks at peak and 800 off-peak daily.

It serves as a transit point for cargo destined for Angola, DRC, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia.

There has been a traffic gridlock at the border since Zimborders Consortium opened its new freight terminal at Beitbridge Border Post a fortnight ago.

Some of the challenges are linked to the new border access fees, slow traffic flow systems, and lack of coordination on the Zimbabwean side of the border.

Truck drivers on Sunday blocked traffic in and out of Zimbabwe prompting the two countries’ inter border management committee to act. Said Limpopo’s Department of Traffic spokesperson Mr Mike Maringa:

Due to congestion challenge along the N1 towards Beitbridge Border Post as a result of slow movement on the side of Zimbabwe, we will soon stop movement of commercial vehicles towards Musina to manage and decongest the border post.
The vehicles will be stopped at the Baobab tollgate Truck Park.

He said the move was meant to ensure that the festive season period traffic is not affected by heavy trucks at the border post.

Maringa added that all movements towards the border will be from local truck parks and not from the road.

Zimborders Consortium, Chief Executive Officer, Mr Francois Diedrechsen said they had made headway in clearing South Africa bound traffic on the Zimbabwe side adding that queues are now under 1 km.

–-The Chronicle