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Harare — Beitbridge Border Post was yesterday heavily congested with a huge volume of southward-bound commercial traffic blocking the free movement of travellers.

In Harare, there was little activity at Mbare Musika long-distance bus terminus yesterday as most travellers failed to board buses to their respective rural homes ahead of the Christmas holiday after operators took advantage of the festive season to hike fares.

At the Beitbridge border, long winding queues of trucks stretching for over 5km from the customs yard was the order of the day and in the process blocking the smooth flow of traffic in the border town.

The border has suddenly become busy as the majority of Zimbabweans based in South Africa are coming home for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

South Africa's immigration authorities were now using most of their parking space for north-bound traffic.

In separate interviews, border post officials attributed the development to lack of parking space on the South African side of the border resulting in traffic piling onto the Zimbabwean side.

Zimbabwe Revenue Authority regional manager, Ms Angeline Mashiri, said: "The problem of congestion is largely because of limited space on the South African side. In fact, you will note that most of the trucks that are queueing here have since been cleared on our side," she said.

Beitbridge Border Post, which is reportedly the busiest inland port of entry in sub-Saharan Africa, has since the beginning of the week been a hive of activity as the volume of both human and vehicular traffic continued to increase with an average of about 12 000 travellers and 3 500 vehicles passing through everyday.

Beitbridge Border Post has since 2003 been operating round the clock.

The acting regional immigration manager in charge of Beitbridge Border Post said the number of travellers, mostly Zimbabweans working in South Africa, continues to increase.

"We have reached a peak period characterised by an increased volume of travellers and we have been busy since Monday clearing people mostly on the arrivals side," she said.

Truck and bus drivers yesterday said they spent several hours at the border waiting to cross over to the South African side.

"We have been stuck here for about 10 hours now and the queue is actually moving at a snail's pace. In fact, we have been cleared on the Zimbabwean side but because of congestion we can't cross over to South Africa," said Mr Morgan Chioko, a cross-border bus driver.

"We had to advise our passengers to proceed on foot to the South African side where we would join them. The situation is really frustrating for both the bus crews and passengers," he said.

The New Limpopo Bridge Company argues that reopening the old single-lane Limpopo Bridge used by pedestrians and the goods trains was unlikely to reduce congestion.

"We are saying the only solution to decongesting the border lies in the quickening of the clearance process, especially on the South African side," said an NLB official.

The South African customs yard can only accommodate 80 heavy vehicles, 10 buses and 100 light vehicles.

"The challenge therefore is for South Africa to do even more in clearing the large number of travellers going through Beitbridge," said the NLB official.

Earlier this month, South Africa's Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, said an extra 150 officers would be deployed to the South African border posts, including Beitbridge, to beef up staff during the Christmas period.

It is, however, anticipated that the proposed one-stop border post concept at Beitbridge would help ease congestion and ensure quick clearance of passengers, particularly during the 2010 Fifa World Cup when thousands of travellers are expected to pass through the border.

Last month, Zambia and Zimbabwe commissioned a one-stop border post at Chirundu.

At Mbare Musika, activity was low after some operators increased fares. The demand for transport during the festive season is usually high as most people head to their rural homes and other destinations to celebrate Christmas and New Year with their families and friends.

However, most families intending to visit their relatives for Christmas had their spirits dampened when they got to Mbare Musika bus terminus and found that fares had gone up.

Some bus operators had increased their fares by over 100 percent, forcing many people to abort their trips.

A visit by The Herald to the terminus showed that it was not business as usual, as most buses were empty compared to the same period in previous years, when travellers jostled to get places on buses to their destinations.

Mr Anderson Chimutasha, who wanted to visit his rural home in Mashambanhaka Village in Mutoko to spend the festive season with his family of seven, said he had been left with no choice but to cancel the journey.

"I cannot afford the fares they are charging. How can they ask me to pay US$7 for a trip to Mashambanhaka, which I know costs US$4, it is too much.

"The best thing to do is to go back home as I cannot afford to pay US$49 for the seven of us for a single trip," said Mr Chimutasha.

Another traveller who intended to go to Chiredzi said he was likely to spend the Christmas holiday in Harare after the fares were increased by 50 percent from US$10 to US$15.

"I arrived in the morning and found the fares increased and had waited hoping that they would go down but this has not happened," said Mr Amos Wachi.

Some bus drivers interviewed denied that they had increased fares and blamed unlicensed operators for the sudden hike.

"We are still charging the same fares. We have not changed because we might lose trust with our customers.

"The problem is with the unlicensed operators who want to take advantage of the festive season to maximise profits by overcharging people," said a driver with Musanhi Bus Company, who refused to be named.

However, the situation was different at other pick-up points in the city were people were hitch-hiking to their destinations taking advantage of the lower fares charged by private motorists.

However, police have warned travellers to be wary of some of these motorists after some people lost valuables to robbers.