4.3 TRADE AND SOCIAL CONTEXT

4.3 TRADE AND SOCIAL CONTEXT

The two-control system introduced is Customs to control the movement of goods and Immigration to control the movement of people. The customs duty fee is paid at the borders to discourage markets or prohibit products from the other sides of the national boundaries. Immigration introduced visas to be issued to people crossing the border at a fee which makes people pay to get permission to move around. Days allocated on the visa for the person to stay on the other side of the boundary and the limit number of days a person can stay on the other side of the boundary per annum. People crossing Beitbridge have the number of visit days detected by the officials that is unfair to the travellers as this affects their plans. The travellers get congested at the border post and sleep for days waiting to be cleared.

Figure 33 Travellers sleep over at the boarder waiting to be cleared, by Author=[

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Figure 34 by Author

Other traders smuggle the goods across the Limpopo river from the other country to avoid the duties.

Figure 35 Illegal border crossing

These are familiar scenes along the Beitbridge border with ordinary people illegally crossing to avoid the immigration processes, customs, and excise duties.

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Figure 1: by Author The locomotives trains and haulage trucks that are transporting goods for big commercial business players. Most of these trucks are seen parked for a minimum of three days, waiting to be cleared at the Border post.

Figure 36 Systems at the Border post

The immigration processes, customs, and excise duties are the main activities that control the human and Goods movements at the border post.

Figure 37 Cross border minibus transporting goods and Passengers

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people.

Figure 38 Cross border bus transporting goods and Passengers

The buses pull huge trailers transporting passengers, groceries, and various bulk products for resell in Zimbabwe, commonly used by a low-class group of people.

There are existing Duty-free shops on both sides of the border. They are two on the South African side that is still operational. The one on the Zimbabwean side has been closed for several years. These retail businesses sell products that are exempted from the payments of duties and taxes.

The duty-free shop ownership favours the established investors with no structures that support the growing entrepreneurs. This structure gives competition between the duty-free shop and the vendors.

The small informal entrepreneurs (drifters) who sell small products like airtimes, snacks, bottled water, and other things are forbidden from doing business from both borders.

The small entrepreneurs who buy stock Musina for reselling have to sleep over and return the following day to skip the duty fees, which lapse the following day after the day of entry.

The existing border systems are designed without considering the development of local people. It is noted that there is employment created to support the system, but the system itself lacks the inclusive programme to benefit the ordinary people at a local level.

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