The Sunday Mail
About 184 kilometres from the second largest city of Bulawayo, in Bulilima, Matabeleland South, is the remote and seemingly neglected Maitengwe border post.
Legend has it that it is easier to access the border from neighbouring Botswana than from this country.
It is at this border post that massive smuggling of drugs is said to be taking place with the authorities stationed there fast becoming clueless on how to curb these illegal activities.
Reports say authorities at this post are under-resourced and have no capacity to deal with smuggling of that magnitude.
“Just some few metres before the bus arrives at the check point at the Maitengwe Border control, most of the passengers without proper border clearance documentation and working in cahoots with bus crews, disembark from buses together with most of their undeclared goods,” said a senior member of the Immigration Department at the border post who refused to be identified fearing reprisals from his superiors.
“They then set out for what are now commonly referred to as magwarimbos, which are human-made holes for the purposes of smuggling on the fence demarcating the border.”
The magwarimbos have become popular exit and entry points used by smugglers of various goods into Botswana and vice versa.
Tales have it that even officials manning this border, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA), Department of Immigration, police and the army have mostly given up on how to curb this menace.
“Soon after the bus crews and the few passengers who would have remained behind are through with the border procedures, they then meet up with those who would have used magwarimbos to evade border formalities,” he explained.
He said authorities no longer care as they now conduct the clearance of those passing through the border from the comfort of the windows of their houses.
However, what is worrying is that such incidences have become rampant at most of the country’ border posts especially in the northern parts of the country, where Chirundu and Nyamapanda border posts are situated.
There is a reported increase in the smuggling of prescription medication drugs, medicines and skin lighteners at these two border posts.
Responding to questions from the Sunday Mail Extra, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority Corporate Communications spokesperson Taungana Ndoro acknowledged that ibuprofen tablets, appetito (cyproheptadine), indomethacin and prohibited cough syrups top the list of the drugs and medicines confiscated at the country’s borders although he was quick to point out that the list is not limited to these tablets only.
Indomethacin and ibuprofen are powerful drugs commonly referred to as prescription drugs which are used to reduce fever, pain, stiffness and inflammation, while appetito is a skin lightener and perceived figure enhancer.
Cough syrups which are also classified as prescriptive medicines have of late been abused for recreational purposes by a number of youths.
The Sunday Mail Extra has it on good authority that at Nyamapanda border post, smugglers evade the authorities by conniving with border patrol guards from Mozampique referred to as guardas defronteira or magwaridha in local dialect to smuggle these medicines and drugs at non designated entry and exit points.
This has led to the failure by the revenue authority to exactly quantify the exact figures of smuggled contraband into the country.
“Most smugglers use undesignated points of entry and exit, however in most cases the long arm of our post clearance audits, joint border patrols and road blocks in conjunction with law enforcement agents have assisted us in dealing with such cases,” said Ndoro.
“While our database is confidential, reports on all cases of smuggling that are handled by courts of law are public records which can be directly obtained from the courts themselves, says Ndoro.
He also said it was difficult to ascertain the origins of these drugs.
As a number of illicit substances continue to find their way into the country, this has given rise to black market activities and the continued use of unsanctioned drugs and medicines by the Medicines Control Association of Zimbabwe, the revenue authority says it is putting in place a number of restrictive measures to curb smuggling.
“ZIMRA has put in place several strategies to curb smuggling and these include the introduction of the canine unit, joint border patrols with law enforcement agencies and post clearance audit,” said Ndoro.
He said his organisation will also institute road blocks in conjunction with law enforcement agencies and cargo monitoring for high value cargo in transit.
The continued smuggling of prescriptive drugs and medicines has become a cause for concern for the country’s drug and medicines regulating board MCAZ
In a recent interview with the Sunday Mail Extra, MCAZ spokesperson Richard Rukwati said the major problem they face as an organisation was the absence of statistical information regarding the abuse of these substances.
“As we speak, the Authority is not aware of the extent of the problem. This is largely because the substances are sold illegally from unspecified and unlicensed premises,” he said.
“Furthermore, the buyers also buy and use these substances mostly in secrecy and this further compounds the absence of information by creating an effective black market . . .
“Having said that, any time medicine is abused to whatever extent and for whatever reason, it is an issue of concern to the Authority,” he said.
“Some of these medicines have several known side-effects, affecting the liver, the heart, the eyes, the blood and many other important physiological systems in the human body, and it is not a stretch to postulate that a lot of people could be accelerating their health problems through unmonitored use of these substances,” he said.
