Chaos at the Chirundu One Stop Border Post

Congestion has once again surfaced in Chirundu. This week we have witnessed a 6 km long queue of trucks waiting to cross from Zimbabwe to Zambia.

TRANSIT DELAYS

I have never seen so many problems in an operating environment – and this is happening in all the countries of the Beira Corridor !!! A sugar truck takes 10 days to run from Mazabuka to Beira. The actual travelling time can be accomplished in 2 days and the balance of 8 days is made up of delays induced by regulatory authorities and border clearance delays.

The delays range from the strict application of the new rules and bank processes as required by the Bank of Zambia and Zambia Revenue Authority, to JUE clearance delays in Mozambique. Whilst JUE clearances are now under control, the system does not seem to have a dispute resolution mechanism and where a Declaracao Number is incorrectly issued or documents are lost in the system, trucks will be condemned to endless delays at Manica.

OVER REGULATION

I feel that the SADC region is over regulated to the point that it is almost impossible to operate a transport business profitably.

I am not sure how we will tackle all these issues but something needs to be done urgently. A good start would be to seek a meeting with the newly appointed Minister of Transport, Hon. Obert Mpofu. I feel that we have a chance to re-establish a relationship with the Ministry after the bad blood that was created by the former permanent secretary and the former Minister Goche.