Braving winding border queues and bumper to bumper streams of traffic from South Africa to Zimbabwe at Beitbridge border post, thousands of Zimbabwean travelers made it home for the holidays.
This came after the new President Emmerson Mnangagwa called for Zimbabweans in the neighbouring South Africa to go back home and invest.
The department of Home Affairs says the Beitbridge port of entry, has seen over 18 000 travelers being processed in one day during the festive season.
A regional gateway for cargo and road travelers to Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - the border’s additional services points and personnel were not enough to deal with thousands of travelers at the border.
Queues of vehicles tailed to Musina Town, as travelers spend over 24 hours trying to weave through the congestion. It was a nightmarish experience for some who had come as far afield as Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth. There was no option other than to sleep in the snailing traffic line with the hope of crossing Limpopo river before Christmas day.
Around the border line soldiers could be seen patrolling the porous fence. The fence is riddled with holes making it easy for illegal jumpers to cross between the two countries. Police are often intercepting vehicles stolen in South Africa being smuggled in to Zimbabwe through the Limpopo river.
