Truck drivers using the South African-Zimbabwe Beitbridge border post say that since the Covid-19 lockdown started, it can take them days to get through.
Trucks going to Zimbabwe, Zambia and the DRC use the post.
When GroundUp visited on Wednesday, the queue was about a kilometre long and the wait about two days.
A week ago it stretched almost 10km into SA from Beitbridge and took five days to get through.
“I joined the queue at 11pm on Saturday evening. Now, it’s 10am Sunday morning. I have not moved even 100m. I have to keep awake ... so that I do not block other drivers. Just imagine spending two days without proper resting,” Audicious Mudzviti, a driver for the Jumbo Company, told GroundUp last week.
Another driver, Frank Moyo, who has worked for the past 10 years for the Hatricee Company, said, “Before lockdown it used to be almost two hours before I crossed into Zimbabwe. Now it’s almost a week. From Johannesburg to Zambia a single trip is almost two weeks.”
He said he used to do up to three trips between Johannesburg and Zambia, but nowadays only manages one in the same time.
“I have no time for my family, which is in Harare,” he said.
Drivers can spend a week without a proper bath.