04 Sep 2016

Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu, is delighted that Mabolwe Border Post is fully utilised.
Speaking after tour of the border post on Friday, Mr Batshu said traffic flow in and out of the newly opened facility showed that government’s resources were not being wasted.
He said the post was opened in June, but to date, 5 366 people used the gate between Botswana and Zimbabwe, which translated into a monthly average of 1 789.
The minister said the statistics showed that the highest number of people that used the border post were non-citizens.
In June alone, 1 783 people used the border, and out of the number 944 were non-citizens and 739 were Batswana, while in July, a total of 2 082 used the facility, with 1 364 being non-citizens, while 713 Batswana.
 In August, a total of 1 501 travellers were recorded, with 412 being Batswana, while 1 089 were non-citizens, he added.
  Mr Batshu said the challenge about the border was that there was no bridge over the dividing river; hence promising to liaise with his counterpart in Zimbabwe on how best to assist motorist cross the river.
He said the border users must understand that the post was seasonal due to the lack of a bridge; as such, during rainy seasons they should use other border posts such as the ones at Maitengwe and Ramokgwebana.
Concerning the road that led to the border, the minister stated that he was impressed by the efforts of the department of roads for making the road usable.
Furthermore, he praised the immigration staff, Botswana Police Service and Botswana Defence Force at the border for their commitment to serve people wholeheartedly.
He said the operational times of 7:30am to 43:0pm were just a temporary arrangement to monitor the situation; the times might change depending on the availability of resources such as additional staff.
The minister said at the moment it was difficult to increase staff due to shortage of accommodation as some workers were already sharing houses. ENDS