Ministers warn of big crackdown on smuggling

The Herald, 5 May, 1981

IN a move to control rising foreign currency and gems smuggling, the Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Richard Hove, announced yesterday that the issuing of all emergency travel documents had been cancelled forthwith.

And the Minister of Finance, Senator Enos Nkala, has ordered an end to organised club tours for women to South Africa. The two ministers were speaking in an interview after visiting the immigration offices at Beitbridge Border Post where they were briefed by immigration officials.

Mr Hove said: “I have discovered that there are Zimbabweans who go to border posts with expired passports and are issued with emergency travel documents there. This applied particularly in Beitbridge.

“I have now stopped this practice of emergency travel documents. They will only be issued in genuine cases of death, and I want to stress, only in the case of death”.

The minister said all people travelling to South Africa and to other countries should take current travel documents as they would not be issued with any emergency travel documents.

Mr Hove also announced other new measures to help curb smuggling.

“If I get all the Cabinet approval I need, I will clamp down on hawking. All we will need to do is to arrest anybody we see hawking these foreign goods and confiscate them. This will mean control even at the selling points.”

The minister said he had discovered that South Africa issued preliminary travel documents even to people who were not of South African citizenship, and the immigration officials accepted these and subsequently allowed the people entry into Zimbabwe.

“I have ordered officials not to accept these preliminary travel documents anymore and to send them back to South Africa.

“I am greatly disturbed by the increasing number of armed robberies that are said to take place in South Matabeleland. I also hear there are some armed people still wandering around the area. I will take drastic measures against such people.”

He said he had decided it was necessary that Government ministers visited small towns like Beitbridge more often.

Sen Nkala said Zimbabwe was losing at least US$400 000 every month through Beitbridge alone as a result of well-organised smuggling rackets. The Minister of Finance revealed yesterday that the racketeers who sit back on the patios of their homes organise “fanciful holiday trips” in South Africa, which cost the country unthinkable sums of foreign currency. These rackets are connected to each other in both Zimbabwe and South Africa.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

◆ Different moments in history, but similar challenges as unscrupulous elements always find means and ways to not only undermine the rule of law, but also bleed the economy by engaging in criminal activities. ◆ When we still have porous borders that enable border jumping into neighbouring countries, the issuance of travel documents needs to be re-examined. The Ministry of Home Affairs is currently seized with the issue, but the truth is that illegal migration will remain an issue. While some people will be looking for better economic opportunities, others will be engaged in criminal activities like drug trafficking, sometimes with the assistance of corrupt immigration officials at the border posts.

◆ Globalisation has led people to seek opportunities where they are available. Today, thousands of Zimbabweans are working in a democratic South Africa, although some are illegal immigrants.

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