Touts wreak havoc at Plumtree border post

TENDAI BHEBE IN PLUMTREE

The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) says the Plumtree border post has become a haven for criminals and touts  despite the area being declared a security zone.

Zimra  region 2 regional manager, Bekezela Majokojoko, who spoke during a tour of the border post by the Parliament Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development on Tuesday this week, said touts were smuggling goods resulting in the tax collector’s revenue falling.

“Touts are a criminal element here. This affects the operations of Zimra because they waylay travellers and they take goods out of the country before they are declared and cleared. So this has had a serious impact on the revenues because this tantamount to smuggling within the border post,” Majokojoko said.

“…all other stakeholders who are within the border post are accredited to be there and they carry the identification cards. As such,  touts are illegal to be there and they are an impediment to the smooth flow of traffic at the border post.”

Zimra, Majokojoko said, entered into a partnership with  security stakeholders who are doing border patrols in bid to curb  smuggling.

“We also discussed the issue of the porousness of the borderline where there is no fence or barrier that stops people from crossing and it is suspected that the bulk of the smuggling of gold is happening through these ungazetted points of entry.

“At the moment Zimra in liaison with other security stakeholders are doing border patrols in a bid to curb this smuggling. But it will be helpful if the fences along the borderline and the roads that are used to patrol the borderlines are also improved which will make the patrolling better,” he said.

Majokojoko said Zimra needs to improve especially in the case where they  no longer have scanners.

He said there was also a need to enhance scanning at the border post.

According to official statistics, Zimbabwe is losing at least US$100m  worth of gold every month, which is being smuggled out of the country through the porous borders.

In 2019, the country earned US$946m from gold compared to US$1,3 billion earned in 2018.

Reports of people being arrested or intercepted while trying to smuggle gold out of the country have been on the increase lately.