The Sunday Mail
Government is losing potential revenue at Chirundu One Stop Border Post as some police officers, soldiers and Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) officials are reportedly assisting civilians to smuggle goods and under-declare vehicle prices to evade paying excise duty.
It is understood that last week, law enforcement agents caught a senior army officer who had smuggled 27 bags of shoes from Zambia, but ended up letting him walk free after a local businessman intervened.
Efforts to get a comment from Zimra chief corporate communications officer Mr Taungana Ndoro were fruitless as he did not respond to questions e-mailed on Wednesday.
Investigations by The Sunday Mail revealed that Government employees living in Riverside — a residential area between the Zambia-Zimbabwe frontier — receive an assortment of mostly Zambia and Tanzanian goods from civilians who seek their assistance in smuggling.
Among the most popular items are clothes, drinks, skin-lightening creams and, in some instances, illegal drugs.
The officials temporarily store the products at their homes until the border post closes at 6pm, after which they smuggle them via an entry point at the old border post.
The crossing point is kept open to allow workers in the suburb to shop on the Zimbabwean side.
“Everything is possible at the border; money talks. Pay your money and your goods will find their way to Zimbabwe at night,” said a civil servant involved in the smuggling syndicate.
“The charges for getting your goods across the border depend on what you are smuggling, but the minimum charge is US$15.”
After the incident involving the senior army officer, the smugglers are treading carefully, though others pointed out that only those who refuse to pay border guards end up being caught.
The officers do not accept goods from anyone, but members of a cartel, which also incorporates taxi drivers and loafers.
The “smuggling facilitators” charge between US$15 and U$50, depending on product value.
The middle-men are well-connected and close to civil servants who carry out the actual smuggling via the old border post where motorists also drive back and forth without being searched.
This reporter crossed to the Zambian side and back into Zimbabwe on foot, and later in a vehicle which was never searched by officers manning the gate.
The officers did not ask for a passport or gate pass, thereby exposing the porosity of the border.
Zimra officials, who preferred anonymity, said authorities were making headway in some cases.
For instance, they said, Zambian taxi drivers involved in smuggling risked having their vehicles impounded.
Culprits are liable to fines of US$2 000, including storage fees. Some daring women were also caught while trying to smuggle clothes purchased in Zambia by wearing several of them and then walking into Zimbabwe without declaring them.
A Zimra official confided, “If a vehicle importer comes on his or her own to clear the car, it’s easier to make deals because dealing with third parties is difficult.
“Although it is almost impossible to smuggle a vehicle, it is easier to work on duty figures.”
