The Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations says the shortage of port health officials at the Ramatlabama and Skilpadhek border crossings in North West is causing congestion.

The two border points close at 6pm instead of the normal 10pm and midnight cut offs. It is reported that the borders have a shortage of port health officials leading to large numbers of drivers waiting to be screened for COVID-19.

The association’s CEO Mike Fitzmaurice says this is unacceptable.

“It is a huge problem for transporters to plan trips surrounding these issues. We now have a border post at Skilpadshek with Botswana being closed from 06h00 to 18h00 Saturday and Sunday due to unavailability of port health officials. This means that transporters will travel courier services through the border post to Namibia will now not be able to cross during the evening like they usually do. This is simply not acceptable.”

Source: SABC