The border between South African and Zimbabwe can politely be described as permeable.

While there is a massive backlog of freight trucks stuck at Beitbridge, one of Africa’s busiest border posts, getting bakkie-loads of goods into the country is less of a hassle.

All you need to do is grease the right palm – SA National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers seems to be the preference – and you can duck in and out as you please.

The situation was once again exposed this past Sunday on Carte Blanche:

On the face of it, it costs just a few hundred rands to illegally move goods across the border of South Africa and Zimbabwe. But with hundreds of smugglers operating on either side of the Beitbridge border, it’s a lucrative source of income.

South African National Defence Force soldiers patrol the multi-million rand fence between these two countries. So, how is it possible that the smugglers (also called “carriers”) continue to operate so brazenly?

In this exclusive investigation, Carte Blanche takes its cameras inside this criminal network to reveal who’s really running this illicit operation.

As is to be expected, when shown the evidence SANDF Brigadier General Mafi Mgobozi was shocked and appalled.

The same words that are trotted out by President Ramaphosa when he’s confronted by government failure.

Sunday’s segment is in full below:

Soliciting bribes is far from the only criminality on show at the border, reports defenceWeb:

The television programme’s investigation was aired days after eight arrests in connection with violations of immigration laws and regulations at the Lebombo port of entry were made public by Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.

These transgressions follow the mid-year arrest of seven soldiers on corruption charges. They were on the South Africa/Zimbabwe border as per the national border protection tasking Operation Corona and allegedly assisted a vehicle theft syndicate to smuggle stolen vehicles out of the country.

At least arrests are being made.

That’s our silver lining take for the day.

[sources:carteblanche&defenceweb]