The Sunday Mail
Sydney Kawadza Mash West Bureau Chief
Transporters, importers and freight forwarding agents could be losing millions of United States dollars in potential revenue due to delays at Chirundu Border Post, and there are now growing calls for the port to operate around the clock.
Chirundu currently operates for 16 hours a day, clearing at least 350 trucks, but a sudden surge of northward-bound traffic has seen trucks spending up to five days at the border.
While the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has said the situation is under control, freight agents insist their cargo is being delayed for days on end.
Mr Nation Mawere, a controller at Bollore Logistics, said the delays are prejudicing them potential revenue.
“The delays affect operations because when a truck which is expected to deliver goods is parked at the border, it affects several stakeholders in the system. For instance, when a load is expected to be delivered to a ship which is delayed for three or four days that also means the ship is also delayed,” he said.
“When a truck is cleared at the Beitbridge Border Post and it is in transit to Zambia or further, we pay a removal-in-transit bond as a deposit as the load is not meant to stay in the country.”
He said the bond is paid back to the freight company when the truck leaves Zimbabwe.
“Each freight company has a ceiling or limit of a number of trucks that it clears. In some cases, you pay a US$10 million bond to clear at most three vehicles; at most with each holding a US$3 million.
“When the vehicles are delayed at the border, we cannot accept any more business. And most small companies with small bonds will have to wait for the clearance of a vehicle to get more business,” he said.
Mr Royce Ackerman, a truck driver from South Africa, said delays at the border also disrupt their operations and schedules.
“A driver has an estimated period he is expected to be on the roads and spending extra days on the road is not only frustrating but inconveniences everyone, even our families,” he said.
However, the long queues at Chirundu Border Post have also been a welcome development for food vendors who are cashing in on truck drivers.
“We have had to shift base to the highway so that we provide ready services for the drivers.
‘‘Some have even forced to hire vehicles that will carry food to the truck drivers who could be stranded more than 20 kilometres from the border,” Mrs Shorai Nyashanu said.
Zimra’s head of corporate communications Mr Francis Chimanda told The Sunday Mail that the border was experiencing long queues during peak periods.
“There is a bottleneck at the new bridge where the exiting acquittal point on the Zambian side accommodates four vehicles at a time and vehicles cannot queue up to the bridge; thus, the vehicles released to cross the river are normally in batches of four a time.”
He also said the load-shedding has affected the system connectivity for ECTS and Asycuda platforms, which may slow down the acquittal process for transits.
