GOODS destined for other countries passing through Zimbabwe’s borders end up being smuggled inside the country, affecting government’s efforts to monitor imported products, a cabinet minister has said.
Addressing business leaders in Gweru recently, industry and commerce minister Mike Bimha said goods in transit were not difficult to monitor because when they pass through Zimbabwe their paperwork clearly indicates their country of destination.
Bimha however, said unscrupulous people, at times in connivance with officials, end up diverting the goods within Zimbabwe.
“We have a big problem of transit smuggling by big trucks that pass through our borders,” Bimha said.
“The documents for such goods will clearly indicate that they are, for example, destined for Zambia but when they get to Harare they are off-loaded.”
He said officials from his ministry, with the help of the police, recently busted a big truck with goods destined for the Democratic Republic of Congo with the cargo being offloaded in a sanitary lane in Harare.
Bimha said government was working on introducing state of the art information technology to monitor the country’s porous borders.
“We are looking at the use of Information and Communication Technologies and also possibly using drone planes to monitor the porous borders,” he said.Advertisement