ZIMRA to buy drones to tackle smuggling

摘要

On Friday, 4 September, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) published a request for expressions of interest for the configuration and commissioning of an anti-smuggling surveillance drone system. The landlocked country has porous borders with its Southern African Development Community (SADC) neighbours, leading to high volumes of smuggled goods such as minerals, fuel and vehicles. While Harare has been trying to tackle the problem for some time, these volumes have swelled in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, particularly for cigarettes, alcohol and other food stuffs. Zimbabwe has identified more than 32 illicit crossing points along its more than 3,000 km of borderline with South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique and lacks the means to physically patrol these points of entry, made all the more easy for smugglers to cross as there are few natural barriers.