MASERU – THE queues at the Maseru border post are long and meandering.
Just to clear their goods at the border post is a strenuous exercise which tests their patience.
But for those importing perishable food products, the consequences are often devastating.
Several food outlets told thepost this week that queuing at the border to clear their goods into Lesotho is a struggle.
They accused the Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) of delaying to process their clearances resulting in their goods getting damaged.
“We have to deal with very long queues for clearing and that means our stock gets damaged. The process is time consuming,” Motjoka Toloane, a KFC manager, said.
Toloane said they are struggling because the LRA staff at the border open at 10am and close at 4.30pm.
“This means the time is limited and if we have not yet cleared we have to spend the night there and some have to pay bribes to access services,” Toloane said.
“This has been going on for a very long time but there has not been any solutions. It makes the business hard to run.”
Toloane said “at 4.30 in the afternoon imported meat from South Africa is not allowed to enter the country”.
He added that it would be better if the LRA workers and police responsible for clearance could be on duty around the clock.
A Shoprite employee at the Maseru Mall said he had always wanted this issue to be discussed thoroughly because it makes them run a loss as a business.
He said the long process of clearance at the border affects the business because it delays the goods to arrive at their destination.
“It happens sometimes that the business has an order of, maybe ten bags of meat, and the delay due to the clearing process at the bridge results in a huge loss,” he said.
“We sometimes sleep at the border awaiting services,” he said.
“In a nutshell, business of perishable goods doesn’t run smoothly in the country due to (long) clearance (processes).”
The manager of Roman’s Pizza at the Maseru Mall, Prakash Jeerakun, said although his goods have always arrived in good order, he is not happy about the time that is wasted at the border gate.
He said this is affecting his business when he runs out of stock.
The Lesotho Revenue Authority spokesperson, Pheello Mphana, said businesspeople can clear their goods online even before they arrive at the border.
“People do not have to waste their time waiting to be cleared,” Mphana said, adding that they “can even do it before they reach the border gate, not unless they do not know about this new system”.
He said the LRA allows those with perishable goods to “pass so that their goods do not get damaged”.
“We no longer have such big queues at the border as what happened ages ago,” Mpana said.
“Nowadays things are better because this online system is available,” he said.
Mphana further stated that the LRA is on duty 24 hours.
“Truly speaking we had challenges of dealing with the new system at first, because we did not know how to use it, but when time went by everything went well,” he said.
He said the pre-clearance system is working extremely well.
Thooe Ramolibeli