The government is looking for new contractors to upgrade the country’s busiest border post after the South African company awarded the tender to carry out the $97 million facelift reportedly failed to do the job.
Finance minister Tendai Biti yesterday said government had in August given the contract to a South African company he did not name, but it had failed to deliver.
“On 18 August, 2010 we entered into an agreement with some company to transform the border post, but nothing has happened and we only realised in September (this year) that they had failed to deliver.
“We now have to go back to the drawing board and find someone with money. We are disappointed with the company, they wasted over a year of our time,” he said.
Beitbridge border post now serves up to 25 000 people per day and yet it was designed to cater for just 4 000. “We want to transform this border post,” Biti said after a tour of the border post with Home Affairs co-minister Kembo Mohadi. “We are planning to also construct flats for Zimra (Zimbabwe Revenue Authority) staff.
He said government was negotiating with South Africa to turn Beitbridge into a one-stop border.
The assistant regional immigration officer in charge of Beitbridge, Charles Gwede, said they had come up with a plan to deal with anticipated congestion during the festive season.
“We learnt from the recent experience we had when we had to process thousands of Zion Christian Church delegates who travelled to a conference in Bulawayo from South Africa.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
“We collapsed some of our shifts and remained with three shifts on the ground and additional staff that came in,” Gwede said.
“Starting from tomorrow (today), we are going to collapse the three shifts into two so that we have a sizeable number of staff on the ground.
“We have demarcated our travellers as visitors and motorists, returning residents and travellers on buses and all have their own queues.
“Buses need to register and come one by one so that when we are done, Zimra takes over.”
Thousands of Zimbabweans living in South Africa are expected to travel home during the festive season.
