A tale of bribes, Covid-19 and risky travel

“The money also covers for documents needed to cross the border that the passengers won’t be having the documentation.

“These include a South African permit to cross the Zimbabwean border, passport and a certificate to show one is Covid-19 negative.”

Immigration officials do not process the passengers’ travel documents.

“Passports are not being used these days, but we take you into South Africa and back,” he said.

“At the border, no passenger disembarks. “You just remain seated and we sort everything out with the immigration guys and police on both sides of the border.”

At the Roadport terminus, a lady returning to Zimbabwe revealed that they did not experience any hassles once they paid the R2 500.

“We did not face any hassles at all. At the border, passengers were not allowed to disembark from the bus,” she said.

“Only the driver and conductors did. But if you wanted to go and relieve yourself, you were given a T-shirt emblazoned with the name of the bus company so that you would appear to the police like one of the bus crew.

“Then the conductors would accompany you to the toilet and back into the bus.”

A bus conductor at High Glen terminus revealed that authorities at South Africa’s Home Affairs department were taking bribes of R700 in order to process travel permits from undeserving Zimbabwean applicants even in their absence.

He showed this reporter a passport belonging to a Zimbabwean that he said he was going to take to South Africa for a permit even though the applicant would remain in the country.

At Roadport, a tout said he and his colleagues sought for people wishing to travel to South Africa without requisite papers and negotiated with the bus companies to take them through.

“Those immigration people at the border, we give them money (to allow non-essential service citizens to pass),” he said.

“I have been to the border and know exactly who to give the money.

“Passengers just sit in the bus and we sort (bribe) the guys at the border so that the bus can pass without being checked.”

Denials galore

Despite our own observations, Samuel Kamutikaoma, the Munhenzva bus company spokesperson, waved off the allegation that they were ferrying passengers illegally.

“We are only repatriating people from South Africa,” he said.

“We are not taking any passengers from Zimbabwe to South Africa.

“What we do is that we just put fuel into our buses and then they go to South Africa empty. The buses then return with repatriated citizens.’

An official from a bus company implicated in the scam also denied that the firm was involved in illegal cross-border activities.

“We are a local operator and do not ply the route across the South African border,” he said.

Another company fingered in the illegal passage of travellers into South Africa, said all operations of the firm were lawfully done.

“At the moment, we are only plying local routes, though some of our buses are contracted by Zupco (a government public transport entity),” he said. “We are not plying cross-border routes.”

Itai Rusike, the Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) director, said he was aware that people were travelling into South Africa despite the border restrictions.

“The official closure of our land borders is just on paper as thousands of people continue crossing the borders every day, thereby pausing a serious public risk of Covid-19 infections,” Rusike said.

Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa (ACT-SA) director Munyaradzi Bhidi said they were also aware that travellers were crossing the border illegally and bribing immigration, customs, police and army officers manning the border.

“We have also been advised that transporters are the ones who organise the payment of bribes to ZRP [Zimbabwe Republic Police], ZNA [Zimbabwe National Army] and Zimra [Zimbabwe Revenue Authority] officials,”

Bhidi said.

“I am sure that the management of ZRP, ZNA and Zimra are fully aware of these developments, but there seems to be no genuine commitment to end the corruption in the country.”

Beitbridge East Member of Parliament Albert Nguluvhe also confirmed the human traffic passing through the border.

“Here in Beitbridge, I observed that there are lots of buses with loads of goods coming from South Africa,” Nguluvhe said.

“On my way from Parliament in Harare, I also noticed them on the way.

“But I thought perhaps they were returning citizens.”

The immigration department and police fall under the Home Affairs ministry, where Kazembe Kazembe is the minister.

Kazembe, in a terse response to questions, said: “I think the issues raised are more operational than policy.

“In that case, I kindly refer you to the head of the immigration department.”

Respect Gono, the chief director in the Immigration department, referred questions to the Beitbridge office’s public relations officer, Memory Mugwagwa, who insisted her office was strictly enforcing lockdown regulations.

“The department is fully aware of the reasons for the lockdown and is enforcing that position with the aid of sister agencies,” Mugwagwa said.

“The presence of enhanced security and the deployment of air patrols and drones is also helping (to) ensure adherence.”

Mugwagwa said people allowed to cross the border were restricted to diplomats, truck drivers, returning Zimbabweans, foreign nationals resident in the country and other migrants on transit under state-coordinated repatriation programmes.

Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said they would launch investigations while his counterpart in South Africa, Mamphaswa Seabi, told The Standard that they were keen to probe allegations of the irregular issuance of permits and failure to produce passports at the border.

“We will have to investigate and find out what is happening,” said Seabi, who asked The Standard for evidence

South Africa has the highest Covid-19 cases in Africa and uncontrolled travel further exposes Zimbabweans to the highly infectious and deadly disease.