STATE Security minister and Beitbribge East legislator, Kembo Mohadi, has called on the government to set up a dry port and expand the Beitbridge Border Post to reduce risks faced by shoppers travelling to South Africa.
BY OWN CORRESPONDENT
Addressing journalists following a tour of Doves Holdings funeral parlour’s refurbished mortuary on Saturday, Mohadi said a dry port would create employment in the transit town and reduce long distances people travelled to buy goods from South Africa.
“Suppliers could bring their goods to Beitbridge and establish the same shops people travel for to South Africa,” he said.
Mohadi said Beitbridge was the busiest port in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it could provide better services if investors and suppliers set up shops in the small town.
Incidences of shoppers being robbed have become common in South Africa where buses from Zimbabwe have been targetted.
Mohadi said suppliers of used Japanese vehicles, whose customers are from landlocked countries as far as the Democratic Republic of Congo, could also set up base at Beitbridge instead of South Africa, which does not consume their products.
He blamed the closure of hotels in the border town to lack of pre-investment research.
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The Rainbow and Express hotels, with 140 and 120 rooms, respectively, closed shop this year citing lack of business and high operational costs.
“They did not research before coming to invest hence this failure,” Mohadi said.
Doves Holdings board chairperson, Engelbert Rugeje, said Beitbridge Hospital will be using his company’s mortuary, which is expected to be operational next month.
