Johannesburg — A 34-year-old Zimbabwean man died at the Beitbridge border post yesterday while a woman gave birth to twins the previous day as extremely high traffic volumes are recorded, South Africa’s Border Control Operation Co-ordinating Committee (BCOCC) said.
Report by Sapa/Eyewitness
BCOCC spokesman Patrick Moeng said the man died of natural causes at 10am.
“He was coming from a medical checkup in South Africa travelling by bus,” he said.
Moeng said the man asked to be escorted to the bathroom, but collapsed and died between the bus and the bathroom.
“Due processes will be followed for him to be transported back home,” he said.
Moeng said a woman gave birth to twins at the border last Monday and the following day another woman gave birth there.
“They were incident-free births. Both the babies and mothers were in good health,” he said,
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Moeng said they were experiencing high volumes of travellers compared to last year.
“Last year by this time, we processed about 19 000 people. Now we have processed over 30 000 . . . It is hectic, but we are coping.”
He said the long queue stretching to 20km at Lebombo border to Mozambique on Saturday had been reduced by midday on Sunday. “We experienced high volumes on Saturday. Most of the travellers processed were mineworkers heading home.”
Moeng said at the Beitbridge border, traffic stretched up to Musina. He appealed to motorists to obey road rules.
“We are doing our best to process people, we have brought in additional staff and resources,” he said.
Meanwhile, BCOCC yesterday said it had deployed additional staff to assist at the Beitbridge border post.
“We are currently able to deal with that because we’ve got enough resources on the ground to handle that kind of situation,” Moeng said.
But he said the busiest border post so far was Lebombo which leads to Mozambique.
He said scores of people travelling to Mpumalanga also passed through the border post.
“As of yesterday, we were processing more than 26 000 people a day which is actually close to 7 000 people more than last year.”
Most Zimbabweans living in South Africa return home for the Christmas and New Year holidays resulting in congestion at the Beitbridge Border post, which is regarded as Africa’s largest inland port.
