Traffic congestion outside the Beitbridge Border Post into Zimbabwe has reached Musina which is about 14 kilometers from the border post.
Chairperson of the Beitbridge Transport and Clearing Agency Association attributes the congestion to the reduced time due to the curfew.
The Zimbabwean side of the border closes at 6pm due to the curfew forcing travellers to spent hours waiting and sleeping in their vehicles waiting for the border to open the following day.
COVID-19 test results
The travellers, who have been delayed on the N1 outside the Beitbridge, fear that their 48-hour negative COVID-19 test results might expire while awaiting to cross the border.
Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says people without the necessary permits to travel into Zimbabwe are causing massive delays.
Traffic officers have their hands full trying to control traffic on the N1.
Travellers, who already have their negative test for COVID-19 and spent days in their vehicles have expressed their frustrations. “I am going to my family. We are still here on the road and the queue is still standing; we don’t know what is gonna happen and the papers that we have for COVID test we don’t know it is going to expire before we reach the border,” says one traveller. “Yeah, I’m going to Zimbabwe. The problem is that we have already COVID test and we reach there we need to test there that we have corona or we don’t have corona,” laments another.
Home Affairs Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, says truck drivers are to blame for the current congestion in Beitbridge. Motsoaledi says most truck drivers do not have the necessary documentation required to cross the border.
Minister Motsoaledi assures ease of traffic congestion at Beitbridge border post:
Meanwhile, a woman died while waiting to cross the border in the traffic queue on Tuesday.
COVID-19 measures including testing and screening are being blamed for traffic jams stretching for kilometres on both sides of the Beitbridge Border Post between Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Trucks, busses, and cars have been stuck in the queue for days mostly because people are trying to get through without the results of a COVID test which is a requirement that South Africa has put in place.
