27 Dec 2012

Workers at the Ramokgwebana Border Post were forced to revert to the manual system as the new computer system was experiencing challenges leading to congestion during the Christmas holidays.

In an interview, the chief immigration officer, Mr Boikaego Basele said the border experienced congestion as the new system was slow, with an average waiting period of five minutes per person.

Mr Basele said the use of the manual system was quicker as a lot of people were assisted on time. He also blamed the congestion for a damaged door as some customers felt that they were being delayed unnecessarily and started pushing to get assisted, thus breaking the door in the process.

He however said the border was operating well, as they had deployed additional officers from Francistown to assist during the festive period. Mr Basele said they also had a joint monitoring exercise by members of the security forces that included the Botswana Defence Force  and the Botswana Police Service’s Special Support Group.

He expressed the desire for the border to be expanded into no-mans’ land to create more space to accommodate clients. He said they refused departure for six elderly citizens (Batswana) who had expired Emergency Travel Documents (ETDs, claiming that they were not aware of the expiry dates.

Mr Basele said the other challenge was of children under the age of 16 travelling with foreigners, revealing that they encountered Batswana children travelling with foreign elders. He said such an arrangement should be accompanied by an affidavit and a letter of consent from the parents of the child.

Mr Basele said most foreigners were denied entry due to lack of proper documents and some did not have travel destinations, while others did not have the means of support to allow them to stay in the country.

Ramokgwebana post was one of the busiest gateways to Zimbabwe as people from South Africa and Botswana travel to and from. Concerning the volume of people travelling, Mr Basele said a lot of Batswana had crossed to Zimbabwe, for religious and tourism purposes.

He said from December 21 to  24, they handled and registered 36 470 as compared to 35 784 during the same time last year. Mr Basele said of the 36 470, 8 242 were arrivals, 24 902 departure and 3 326 illegal immigrants who have since been repatriated.

He said they have also recovered P165 330.00 from charging defaulters as per the Immigration Act, saying about 336 people were charged. ENDS