Source: Beitbridge One-Stop Border Post: The gateway to Africa’s US$3,4 trillion dream – herald
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
THE long queues of trucks snaking for kilometres at Beitbridge, the thump of passports on counters and the double clearance that has defined Africa’s busiest inland border for decades are finally counting down their last days.
A quiet revolution is underway at the Beitbridge Port of Entry (PoE). Driven by political will from Harare and Pretoria, technical work on the ground and growing interest from across the continent, the One-Stop Border Post (OSBP) concept is moving a gear up — and with it, Zimbabwe and South Africa’s ambition to make Beitbridge the engine room for regional and continental trade.
The full implementation of the OSBP at Beitbridge fits well into the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which is a massive economic agreement designed to connect 55 African countries into a single market of 1,4 billion people with a combined Gross Domestic Product of US$3,4 trillion.
In addition, the move aligns with the African Union’s Agenda 2063, a 50-year strategic master plan and blueprint that aims to transform Africa into a peaceful, integrated, and prosperous global powerhouse driven by its own citizens.
For years, travellers and truckers at Beitbridge have had to stop twice: once to exit Zimbabwe and again to enter South Africa.
The same documents were checked twice. The same cargo was scanned twice. The same delays, costs, and frustrations.
However, that model is about to change soon under the envisaged One-Stop-Border-Post concept.
Under the OSBP concept, authorities from both countries will co-locate in a single Control Zone. A traveller or truck will stop once and be processed for entry and exit by both states at the same time.
South Africa’s Border Management Authority (BMA) Commissioner, Dr Michael Masiapato, said recently that negotiations were underway with successful bidders for a public-private partnership, and during the current year, 2026, they are going to start seeing that work gaining traction.
He was speaking during a tour of the Beitbridge Border Post by a United Nations delegation that visited the border to observe the protocols authorities are implementing in receiving refugees and asylum seekers arriving by road into South Africa.
“The implementation of the one-stop border post is one of the key strategic interventions and decisions of the Government of South Africa,” said Dr Masiapato.
“Currently, negotiations are underway with successful bidders for a public-private partnership and during the current year, 2026, we are going to start seeing that work gaining traction. We expect construction to start in the final quarter of 2026.
“You will realise that the success of the one-stop border will depend on infrastructure and on the Zimbabwean side they already have the infrastructure. It is us that they are waiting for so we can implement the OSPB.”
He said under the initiative, border authorities from the two countries will have a Control Zone and co-locate to create one service point for travellers entering or leaving either country.
“We are going to have a Control Zone where we will co-locate with our Zimbabwean counterparts for entry on our side and exit on their side,” said Dr Masiapato.
“This means travellers will no longer have to stop on both sides; they will only stop once and be processed for passage by both countries from one service point.”
At the moment, travellers are stopping at both sides of the border to duplicate the clearance processes, which at times often slows down the flow of traffic.
Already, Zimbabwe, through the Second Republic, completed a US$300 million modernisation of Beitbridge Border Post in 2023 under a PPP with Zimborders Consortium.
The project delivered 24-hour operations, scanners, CCTV, integrated ICT systems, and a single building housing more than 10 government agencies. Cargo clearance times dropped from days to hours.
Now, South Africa is catching up. Its National Assembly has passed the OSBP Bill, which is now before the National Council of Provinces. Once signed into law, it will give legal effect to the shared border model.
Head of the Border Efficiency and Management Systems technical team under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Mrs Constance Chizhanje, told delegates during a recent meeting in Beitbridge that Zimbabwe has already started drafting the legal frameworks and procedures manual for OSBP rollout with both South Africa and Zambia.
“So far, we have had two meetings with our Zambian counterparts with a view to opening a second One-StopBorder Post at Victoria Falls, following the success of the initiative at Chirundu which was launched in 2009,” she said.
“On Beitbridge, engagements are advanced. We have hosted a team from South Africa’s Home Affairs department. We took them through the Chirundu border post, and they appreciated the need to speed up the processes and to facilitate trade facilitation in the North-South corridor.”
Initially they were treating the concept from a security perspective, but after our engagements, we all agreed this is an initiative to boost trade and free movement of people within the region.”
She added that key issues still being harmonised include extraterritorial arrangements and the alignment of immigration, customs and security systems.
A 2015 JICA survey showed freight delays at Beitbridge were driving up costs for companies — a problem OSBP is designed to solve.
The political momentum was sealed in 2023 when President Mnangagwa and his South African counterpart President Cyril Ramaphosa met at the border and agreed in principle to implement OSBP. Both leaders have since jointly toured both sides.
Talks are now underway for the next big leap: a third commercial bridge dedicated to cargo and people, to decongest the existing New Limpopo Bridge.
South Africa is also realigning tolling under the proposal gazetted in August 2025; Zimbabwe will collect tolls for northbound traffic, while South Africa will toll southbound traffic. Revenue will fund the new bridge and processing facility to support the Smart Border initiative.
With the Port of Entry processing a total of 15 000 travellers daily, rising to 30 000 during peak periods and 14 000 to 15 000 trucks a month, the need is urgent.
The impact of Zimbabwe’s US$300 million upgrade is now being felt beyond SADC and is going beyond continental as witnessed by the visit of the team from West Africa led by the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Mr Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, which toured Beitbridge with officials from Cameroon and Benin on a benchmarking mission supported by Afreximbank.
“We are part of the international customs family, the World Customs Organisation family with more than 180 member administrations. It is necessary to undertake these benchmarking missions to learn best practices from each other,” said Mr Adeniyi.
“The visit to Beitbridge is to see how Zimra is conducting a modern border operation. To present a good experience of a border post, the infrastructure is excellent. It is a border post that is transparent, efficient and able to improve cross-border services.”
“First, a modern border post requires state-of-the-art infrastructure and we have seen it here. As representatives from three delegations, we can say this can rival any border in Europe. It is world-class.”
Mr Adeniyi said the key lesson was matching processes with infrastructure, adding that the delegation had noted the state of affairs at Chirundu, where infrastructure alone is not enough.
“We have to match processes with infrastructure to deliver services better. We can replicate this in West and Central Africa,” he said.
“The border between South Africa and Zimbabwe should harmonise systems. The systems must speak to each other for easy trade. For example, an export document from Zimbabwe can be used as an import document in South Africa. The processes are built on trust and there is a need for deployment of ICT.”
He also commended Zimbabwe’s use of electronic cargo tracking to curb transit fraud.
“When you see a border working like this, you know Africa can trade with itself efficiently. We are taking these lessons home,” said Mr Adeniyi.
Acting Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) Commissioner for Customs, Mrs Lonto Ndlovu, said the visit was a vote of confidence in the way of doing business by the country.
“As customs administrations that belong to the World Customs Organisation, we are encouraged to identify those administrations that have modernised. Zimra has been identified by the West African countries for this benchmarking programme. They shared that we need to make use of AI, which they are already using, to improve services at our borders,” said Mrs Ndlovu.
Zimborders Consortium General Manager Mr Nqobile Ncube said the visit confirmed Beitbridge as a continental reference point.
“We have had so many delegations benchmarking on developments the project has brought. We believe we have good examples to replicate this model around Zimbabwe,” he said.
“We have noted one insight from West Africa on how they are streamlining operations and clearing at least 1 400 trucks daily with only five border agencies. We need to learn how they are doing it with less than 10 percent of the agencies we currently have on the ground.”
Afreximbank’s Dr Gainmore Zanamwe linked the developments directly to Agenda 2063 and said that the bank has been working to support intra-Africa trade and the AfCFTA agreement.
“We may not increase trade unless we look at borders which are congested due to lack of infrastructure and poor processes,” he said.
“The One-Stop Border Post concept here is now due and we are seeing the government working to upgrade other borders, including at Chirundu where a one-stop border post is already in existence with Zambia. The ideas can be replicated and we need to position Zimbabwe as a logistics hub.”
Africa’s dream of a single market under the African Continental Free Trade Area will not be realised by signatures alone. It will be realised at borders like Beitbridge.
The OSBP model cuts time, cost and corruption and it is envisaged to boost intra-Africa trade, which currently sits at just 15 percent of the continent’s total trade.
In addition, for landlocked countries like Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and DRC that depend on the North-South Corridor, a seamless Beitbridge means cheaper goods, faster supply chains and more competitive exports.
For South Africa, it means protecting its position as the continent’s most industrialised economy while opening faster access to markets north and for Zimbabwe, it cements its ambition to be a regional logistics hub.
From the truck driver in Musina to the trader in Lagos, from the policymaker in Addis Ababa to the customs officer in Douala, all eyes are on Beitbridge.
What started as a US$300 million upgrade has become something bigger: a practical demonstration that Agenda 2063 is not just a document, but concrete, steel, scanners and a single stamp at a single window.
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