Fire in warehouse causes temporary closing of Beit Bridge border post

Date: 04 December 2014 By: Mashudu Netsianda

Zimbabwe temporarily shut down its border with South Africa at Beit Bridge on Thursday evening, after a customs warehouse of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) caught fire.

Impounded goods to the value of an estimated R50 million went up in flames in the inferno. The blaze exposed Beit Bridge’s lack of fire preparedness with officials having to ask South Africa to help as the border town has no fire station.

The warehouse was used to keep goods smuggled such television sets, electrical goods, blankets and groceries whose customs duty value is about US $5 million.

A spokesperson for the Beit Bridge Civil Protection Unit, Mr Talent Munda, said the fire started shortly after 17:00 and caused a power outage at the busy border post, Zimbabwe’s gateway to its biggest trading partner, South Africa. Munda said the cause of the fire was not known, although it was suspected that it could have been an electrical fault. "When the incident occurred, there was no one inside the locked warehouse."

A truck driver who witnessed the incident, Stanbreck Horita, said the blaze resulted in border authorities' temporarily suspending the movement of travellers. “I had parked my truck at the ZIMRA yard waiting for my vehicle to be cleared when fire started and everyone was scurrying for cover as the raging fire started spreading. It destroyed the entire building,” said Horita.

Another witness, Mr Dumisani Mudau, a clearing agent, said that he was busy processing papers for his clients when he heard people raising the alarm "and the next thing everyone was rushing to the scene of the huge. The fire was spreading so fast that even when firefighters arrived at the scene, they could not contain it."

Buses carrying travellers who were bound for either South Africa or Zimbabwe had to be delayed as a result of the fire. Beit Bridge's town secretary, Mr Loud Ramakgapola, said they had to collaborate with National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) and sent their fire tenders to the border post. “We tried to send our firefighters to the border post, but unfortunately they could not contain the fire because it was too fierce. The other problem is that there are no fire hydrants at the border, making it difficult to deal with such disasters,” said Ramakgapola.

Firefighters from neighbouring Musina Fire station arrived shortly afterward and teamed up with their local counterparts in trying to put out the fire, to no avail.

Ramakgapola said Beit Bridge had no fire station and the local authority relied heavily on Musina Municipality in the event of similar disasters. “Beit Bridge is a very busy border post which handles a huge influx of travellers, especially during the festive season. We therefore need a proper fire station in Beit Bridge, so that we are able to deal with such situations. This is wake-up call and we need to look into this issue as a matter of urgency,” said Ramakgapola.

The border post is arguably the busiest inland port of entry in sub-Saharan Africa and it handles an average of 10, 000 travellers and a huge volume of commercial traffic daily. The border also handles a huge volume of commercial trucks passing through to other countries such as Zambia, DRC and Malawi.

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Mashudu Netsianda

Mashudu Netsianda is our correspondent in Beit Bridge, Zimbabwe. He joined us in 2006, writing both local and international stories. He had worked for several Zimbabwean publications, as well as the Times of Swaziland. Mashudu received his training at the School of Mass Communication in Harare.

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