Hundreds of thousands stuck at Beitbridge Border Post

By Tererai Karimakwenda
20 December 2005

Traffic continues to be gridlocked at the Beitbridge border post as hundreds of thousands of people flock home for Christmas. They are all coming from South Africa and travelling to their respective homes in Zambia, Malawi or the DRC and further north, but they must pass either through Botswana, Mozambique and the main crossing at Beitbridge into Zimbabwe. South Africa based writer and correspondent for the Washington Times Geoff Hill described the aerial view of this annual exodus as a scene from an epic film, reminiscent of a Cecil B. DeMille movie. He said the numbers are vast and it has been getting worse each year. According to Hill, some people are waiting for up to 8 hours to get across.

The huge numbers of outsiders now living in South Africa are indicative of the nature of African politics. Hill said the country hosts an estimated 6 million people from Africa, meaning about 1 out of every 8 residents are not South Africans. Many are leaving their homelands to look for greater opportunities in South Africa, and their desperation, combined with the dissatisfaction of local officials, has created a breeding ground for corruption. Travellers know which late night flights to catch in order to minimise the risk of getting caught when they try to sneak into South Africa. Hill explained how security officials at airports and border posts are looking to make a decent living themselves, and are so frustrated with the scale of the problem that they are accepting bribes quite easily.
On Tuesday South Africa’s anti-corruption units at Beit Bridge arrested another immigration official for taking R400 from an illegal foreigner from Zimbabwe. He was accused of letting the Zimbabwean enter South Africa without documents. Two other unnamed officials were arrested two weeks ago, and a border post policeman was arrested in May for taking a R150 bribe, also from a Zimbabwean. A police official is reported to have said the anti-corruption units were working "full-time" at the border post.
As for the treatment of Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa, Hill said
South Africa has streamlined the process of acquiring legal documents and applications can now only be made in Pretoria. Hill said this has made it easier to find and detain Zimbabweans, adding that black Zimbabweans are the primary targets. The police have become more careful since several were exposed taking bribes in a recent television documentary.