So, you think you can just hop in a car and drive around Africa, huh? Well, you can’t because those government employees in their adjustable swivel chairs have decided to make it bloody difficult. There are a number of administrative and bureaucratic hoops you have to jump through before:
Car Insurance
Our regular, South African comprehensive car insurance only covers us for the countries neighbouring South Africa, so we have to find other insurance for Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda. Our insurance broker is busily working on a plan for that. Oh, and our regular insurance excludes coverage for “offroading” – which pretty much means we’re not covered on 50% of the “roads” upon which we’re likely to be traveling. If you don’t have proof of insurance coverage for the country as you cross the border and vehicle registration papers, you’re stuffed.
COMESA: Third-Party Insurance
A lot of Sub-Saharan African countries require that you purchase third-party vehicle insurance specific to that country – and usually you have to pay at the point of entry for each country. COMESA is third-party insurance that negates the need to buy third-party insurance cover in the following countries: Burundi, Djibouti, Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In South Africa, COMESA is available from the AA (www.aa.co.za). They’ll tell you that if you don’t buy COMESA beforehand, you will have to pay for third-party insurance at each of the borders which can be costly and time-consuming – what the AA won’t tell you is that it’s much cheaper to buy third-party insurance at each of the borders as the AA won’t (for obtuse reasoning of their own) sell you a few weeks coverage for each country – you have to buy total coverage for every country for the entire duration of your trip. If you’re going on a long trip and visiting lots of countries you’ll be massively overpaying if you buy COMESA from the AA.
Carnet de Passage en Douane (CPD)
A Carnet de Passage is a document that covers temporary admission of motor vehicles into various countries. Without it, you might not be allowed to bring your vehicle into the country at all (possibly Kenya, and definitely Uganda), or may experience significant border delays of around 3 hours (Tanzania, Zambia) while they issue temporary vehicle permits and extract payola. The issuing authority (in our case, the AA in South Africa) issues you a Carnet with a number of pages (5,10 or 15) – one page is used per country showing your vehicle’s entry and exit. We’re going to pay around R3000 ($420) for a 10 page carnet valid for 6 months. Here’s the catch for us though: as we are neither permanent residents nor SA citizens, we may have to lodge a security of 100% of the value of the car with the AA in South Africa – ouch. In South Africa, a CPD is available from the AA (www.aa.co.za).
International Drivers Permit
I hope this isn’t required as we don’t really have time to get one, but they’re apparently recommended – especially for Mozambique where the officious police use the lack of one to extract bribes. In South Africa, an International Drivers Permit is available from the AA (www.aa.co.za), in Canada from the CAA (www.caa.ca) and the from AAA in the US (www.aaa.com)
Health Insurance
My South African healthcare insurer (Discovery) provides some pretty good out-of-country benefits for 90 days (full coverage, evacuation etc.) but after that we’re on our own. They suggested that after 90 days I could come back into South Africa for a day and leave again – this would give me another 90 days of coverage… but I can’t simply buy coverage extension for a couple of months. So we’re having to purchase some other international coverage for whatever time we need.
Visas
This isn’t as bad as it could be… We’re traveling on Canadian passports and most of the countries that we are visiting issue visas on the spot at the border to Commonwealth country citizens – but they’re still relatively expensive ($20 – $200 per person). The exception to this is Mozambique for which we have to apply in advance.
Carbon Tax and Other Zimbabweanisms
Zimbabwe, famed for its progressive and exemplary policies, has a carbon tax that it levies on foreign vehicles as they enter and actually charges one to leave the country, presumably to stem demand.