Travellers crossing the South Africa-Zimbabwe border will need to produce a coronavirus certificate before being allowed to cross it, South African and Zimbabwean Home Affairs Ministers reiterated on Saturday.
South African Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and his Zimbabwean counterpart said Kazembe Kazembe said this after a meeting at their common Beitbridge border post in the north of this country.
“For the first time in December, with a large number of people going through the borders, we are going to be demanding Covid-19 certificates,” Motsoaledi said.
According to the minister, the measures were set to protect people against the spread of the virus while allowing them to be with their loved ones during the December holiday festivities.
“It’s important to communicate with our people. We are going to up our communication in this regard,” Motsoaledi said.
Observers, however, noted that the South Africa-Zimbabwe border is so porous that some travellers without the Covid-19 certificates would still be able to cross it without any documentation.
It is an open secret that some travellers from outside South Africa enter and leave the country without travel documents like passports in spite of Pretoria’s efforts to build a border fence and mounting constant armed patrols in the area.
NM/as/APA