Congestion of heavy cargo trucks at the Wenela Border Post outside Katima Mulilo may soon be something of the past following a Cabinet resolution to implement short- to medium-term interventions to address the bottlenecks.

The border post is the entry point between Namibia and Zambia.

For the past year, since the introduction of the 24-hour operation of the Katima Mulilo border post between Namibia and Zambia, the movement of cargo and goods trucks has increased significantly.

Truck drivers and their cargo spend days at the border for clearance to enter or leave Namibia. The Cabinet has now intervened and approved interventions to ensure that required documentation is processed before trucks arrive at the border. 

Among the long-term interventions will be to conduct a Joint Time Release Study by Namibia and Zambia and identify bottlenecks that have led to the congestion of trucks at the border post. Another measure is the implementation of an Inter-Agency Standard Operation Framework on Coordinated Border Management (CBM) in Namibia.

At the moment, trucks are parked from the Zambezi Vocational Training Centre, passing through the Katima Liselo farm to the Katima Mulilo border post without any security and safety for the trucks.