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| Loaded and heading into Africa. |
Hate it or like it, Beitbridge is one of the busiest ports of entry to and from South Africa for countries in Central and Eastern Africa with countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo and even far afield like Tanzania.
Goods and people to and from these countries choose this border post to access one of Africa's largest economies.
As a result the border is busy with both goods carrying vehicles, buses and private cars.
On a good day, one can go through the border formalities of both the Zimbabwe and South Africa in an average of thirty minutes and in the same vein, if the travellers arrive at the same time, then chaos and huge delays of up to five hours are not uncommon.
The secret is to know when to arrive and most importantly what to do and when to do it.
Those who have had the opportunity to experience the border at its worst mostly vow never to come back through the border and in the same vein, some will always travel to South Africa using the same route every time.
Stories are told of people in the bid to jump the queue have lost vast amounts of money to touts who solicit business to tired and often confused travellers by offering to "do it quickly'.
The best advice we give travellers is to be organised with your paperwork in one place and not to show that you are carrying lots of money.
We as Crossing Beitbridge are committing ourselves to provide information to travellers that will help in making it easy for travellers to cross.
A number of products have been put in place to try and help travellers navigate their way through the often busy border post.
We know we may never stop the ripping off of travellers by touts who offer to "help" but usually end up demanding huge sum of money from unsuspecting travellers.
We have published an application which we definitely hope will help travellers by showing them what to do, how to do it and when.
The application is still at an early stage but we are confident one day it will be a pleasure for one to Cross Beitbridge.
