By Rex Mphisa
SHOTS were fired and tear-smoke hurled to the public on Wednesday as the Anti-smuggling Task Force, Police Support Unit, soldiers from the Zimbabwe National Army and Customs and Excise officials at Beitbridge fought running battles with travellers at the Dulivhadzimu Bus Terminus.
A policeman was felled by a missile thrown to his face by angry travellers who pelted the officials from the anti-smuggling task force and Customs and Excise gathering imported goods for seizure as smuggled goods.
The officer commanding Beitbridge Police District Chief Superintendent Melusi Ncube confirmed there was a clash at Dulivhadzimu bus terminus but did not give details.
Witnesses said the clashes were sparked by unorthodox methods to collect duty led by members of the anti-smuggling task force.
After a random short survey of the bus terminus members of the anti-smuggling task left and returned with Customs officers and a heavy truck to indiscriminately load goods deemed smuggled.
This angered the public some of who had genuinely imported their stuff and people advanced to the teams pelting them with stones and other missiles.
The anti smuggling task force members and Customs officers retreated only to return reinforced by the police and army.
And the real battle began.
Some looters hoping to take advantage of the melee joined the fray.
Overwhelmed, the officials fired two shots in the air before unleashing tearsmoke to disperse the public in scenes that reminded people of the ongoing hostilities pitting Iran against Israel and United States of America.
The officials summoned the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority drone to support their battle against the travellers and ordinary people who joined in.
“A plain clothes policeman trying to disperse the people was hit with a stone of he face. I heard two gunshot sounds but several tear smoke canisters were deployed to the public,” said a youth who washes buses for a living.
Several people living in the vicinity of Dulivhadzimu bus terminus said they were affected by the tear gas and used wet towels to ease the effects.
A woman whose goods were taken said people are facilitated by the police and soldiers to smuggle and the same people followed to seize their goods.
“Right at the edge of the bridge on the Zimbabwean side is where everything happens but they don’t go there only to chose us as the soft targets,” she said.
Because the Limpopo River is flooded, people are smuggling goods right on the bridge manned by police and the ZNA where a popular phrase “kudhirikira” is used as a way of sidestepping the border.
For one to do that, officers manning the bridge facilitate for a fee.