The government has moved to close loopholes at the Mt Selinda and Sango border posts that have caused a surge in the smuggling of second hand clothes into the country saying it could lead to the spread of coronavirus.
During the Post Cabinet briefing, Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa said second-hand clothes mainly from western countries where COVID-19 has hit hard poses a danger to those who wear them.
“The apparent increase in the smuggling of second-hand clothes into the country through Border Posts such as Mt Selinda and Sango poses unprecedented danger of contracting COVID-19 by those who wear them.
“Government will henceforth upscale the enforcement of the law banning the importation of second-hand clothes,” Mutsvangwa said.
Zimbabwe is one of the destinations for second clothes from the west which is smuggled into the country via Mozambique.
Most of the countries where these second hand clothes are coming from have been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic recording thousands of infections and deaths.
