With several deaths recorded at the Beitbridge border post, transport and freight forwarding industries have called for urgent intervention from the government.
With the COVID-19 regulations and restrictions that have been introduced at the beginning of December severely compromising the flow of traffic through both sides of the border as there is only one testing station with a single entry and exit point, creating a massive bottleneck that stretched from Musina in Limpopo on the South African side to the border post, and for more than 20km on the Zimbabwe side. This congestion aggravated by the annual traffic increase over the festive period had already severely impacted South Africa with lost revenue. During the first three weeks of December, the cost of these delays at Beitbridge was almost R88m per week; with queueing time delays for trucks amounting to R609m per week, this is a total loss of R2,092,860,000 Mike Fitsmaurice – CEO of the Federation Eastern and Southern Africa Road Transport Associations said.
Dr. Juanita Maree CEO for SA Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF) said drivers that were queuing ran out of food and had no water for drinking or washing their hands and there were no toilet facilities available while criminals are looting and stealing from the trucks with drivers giving up hope of getting home to be with their families all while sitting in the unbearable heat of more than 40°C.
Key players in the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) as well as The Federation of Eastern and Southern Road Transport Associations (FESARTA) and the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF), have called on government for a public-private partnership (PPP) to prevent future disasters like the chaos at the Beitbridge border post on the Zimbabwe border.
Maree sees this agreement is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that can bring 30 million people out of extreme poverty and raise the income costs per day. Municipalities, government agencies and departments, as well as the private sector on both sides of the border, need to collaborate to create capacity and efficiencies to ensure that there are no bottlenecks at the border so that much needed economic growth can take place and trade and businesses are able to flourish. The situation faced is having a huge impact on supply-chains throughout Africa as much-needed goods – including essential items – are simply not reaching their destinations. It has become clear that there is no quick solution but if government is willing to partner with the private sector the smooth flow of goods and people across the border could be restored, preventing a humanitarian disaster and an economic collapse within the region.