It was my first time at the busiest border post in Southern Africa after more than 6 years. I enjoyed the changes of scanners at our border- great move to check on everything entering or exiting our borders!
Area of concern
People can still opt not to use the scanner if they choose! I saw certain bags which did not pass through the scanner with the owners of the bags opting to pay bribes. On the SA side all bags are offloaded and am sure our border control needs to learn from the SA counterparts.
Exit or Entry?
Zimbabwe has a scanner on the exit side but not entry side
South Africa has a scanner on the entry side and none on the exit side
Something amiss here considering that the country’s import bill runs into billions per year! Why do we prefer manual verification of imports? Manual has a lot of inefficiencies plus allows room for smuggling!
Someone deliberately placed the scanner on the wrong side- the exit side! We should place our national scanner on the ‘money side’ where we stand to lose billions of dollars in revenue from taxes.
The South Africans have used common sense by placing a scanner on the entry point, we too can do it and reduce chances of smuggling.
