Tag / border post

by Mike Poverello

SA Donkeys ‘ferry’ illicit vehicles into Zimbabwe

Police are on high alert looking for a syndicate that uses donkeys to smuggle luxury cars across the Limpopo River into the Zimbabwe.

Thieves tied ropes to the cars which were hitched on to the donkeys to pull the cars across the river.

Some cars are driven through the drier parts of the river. On Tuesday, a Mercedes Benz C220 was intercepted before it disappeared into Zimbabwe.

“Our members were just in time to pounce on them after the donkeys were apparently no longer able to pull it through the sand,” Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo  for the SA Police Service said.

The suspects fled into the bushes towards Zimbabwe side. Most of the cars are being smuggled across the river through the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe, south of Beitbridge border post.

In December, police recovered a Hilux bakkie when thieves attempted to smuggle it through the river. The bakkie was stolen in Durban.

It was semi-submerged in the water when Limpopo police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nneke Ledwaba spotted it from a helicopter while he was leading a high-density operation in Musina and Beitbridge.

The vehicle and donkeys were abandoned in the middle of the river and the suspect fled into Zimbabwe. It is not clear why the thieves do not simply driver the car into Zimbabwe – one reason might be that most modern cars are fitted with a tracking device which uses satellite tracking to locate a vehicle, if stolen. The tracker is only active when the car is running.

Mojapelo said 13 vehicles have been recovered since January this year. Thieves target luxury bakkies, SUV’s, specifically Toyota and Isuzu. Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal are the two provinces that are mostly affected.

Last week, four vehicles were recovered. A Range Rover worth R900 000 was recovered after police intercepted it at the Beitbridge border post. The vehicle was en route to Malawi. The man was arrested and was found in possession of cash with an estimated amount of R30 000.

Mojapelo said the car had Limpopo registration numbers, but it was still unclear where it was stolen. Source: Pictures – SAPS and article – Iavan Pijoos, News24, 2 August 2017.

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by Mike Poverello

Xenophobia Backlash – Mozambique/South African Border closed

Lebombo border post has been closed until further notice Friday17 April 2015 after an unruly mob barricaded the N4 near Ressano Garcia, targeting trucks with South African registration numbers [Picture: Sowetan]

Lebombo border post has been closed until further notice Friday17 April 2015 after an unruly mob barricaded the N4 near Ressano Garcia, targeting trucks with South African registration numbers. [Picture: Sowetan]

The border post between South Africa and Mozambique has been closed until further notice Friday after an unruly mob barricaded the N4 near Ressano Garcia, targeting trucks with South African registration numbers.

This also came just as immigration officials from Mozambique early in the morning began the blocking of all vehicles coming from South Africa under unexplained circumstances. Witnesses told ZimEye.com the situation at the border is both shocking and desperate with drivers voicing their frustration at the hands of Mozambican border officials.

Lebombo border post has been closed until further notice Friday17 April 2015 after an unruly mob barricaded the N4 near Ressano Garcia, targeting trucks with South African registration numbers..

“Trucks with South African registration plates have been stoned in Mozambique. A volatile crowd of about 200 Mozambicans has barricaded the N4 about four kilometres east of the Resano Garcia border post, where there is a truck stop,” reported Corridor Gazette on Friday.

“It is suspected that this action in related to the Xenophobic attacks which have erupted in various areas of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng this week.”

Trac, a company which is responsible for the 570km of the road between Solomon Mahlangu off-ramp in Tshwane and the Port of Maputo in Mozambique, placed a warning on the protest action on its website.

A traveller who en route to Nelspruit from Maputo at around 9:30 on Friday morning told the website that: “The crowd let us pass because we had a Mozambican-registered car.

by Mike Poverello

Deftness of the Border Elephant

I received this series of photos of an African Elephant via email. Now it may not be the designated border crossing, but gee – how skillful and considerate of “Mighty Mo” in leaving no damage to someone else’s property.

 

by Mike Poverello

Enhancing South Africa’s and Africa’s development through Regional and Continental Integration

Hardly a week goes by without some or other African politician waxing lyrical about continental integration, continental trade diversification, and a wholesome analysis of the ‘barriers’ which prevent the African continent  from reaching its full economic potential. No doubt I’m a bit biased in relaying the recent ‘public lecture’ of our deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe at the University of Finland – read the full speech here! Plenty of insight clearly delineating a plethora of barriers; yet, are we African’s so naive not to have identified these barriers before? Evidently yes.

In recent weeks, on the local front, we have learnt that One Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) is the solution to non-tariff barriers. This topic was drilled amongst the press till it got boring. The focus soon thereafter shifted to the implementation of a border management agency (BMA) – all of government under one roof – so simple. The reality is that there is no silver-bullet solution to African continental integration. Of this, affected business, Customs administrations and the international donor community is acutely aware. While the WTO and the multitude of trade lawyers will ‘yadder’ on about ‘diversification’ in trade, the reality is that Africa’s raw materials are even more sought after today than at an any time before. Certainly those countries which contain vast resources of oil and strategic minerals are about to reap the benefits. So why would African countries be concerned about diversification when the petro-dollars are rolling in? Perhaps greed or lack of foresight for the medium to long-term well-being of countries and their citizens? The fact remains, without homegrown industries producing goods from raw materials, most of  Africa’s eligible working class will continue to be employed by foreign mineral moguls or the public service.

Several customs and infrastructure solutions have over the last few years emerged with the usual credential of “WCO or WTO compliant”. Africa has been a guinea pig for many of these solutions – ‘experiments’ if you prefer. Literally millions of dollars are being spent every year trying out so-called ‘best-of-breed’ technology which users unfortunately accept without much questioning. The cart is being placed before the horse. Why? because the underlying route cause/s are not being identified, understood (sufficiently) and prioritized. Insofar as there exists no silver bullet solution, neither is there a single route cause in most cases. Unfortunately, donor aid often comes with its own pre-conceived outcomes which don’t necessarily tie in with those of the target country or the well-being of the continent.

While governments like to tout the ‘big-hitting’ projects, there are several ‘less exciting’ (technical) areas which countries can address to kick-start the process. One of these has even been recognised by the likes of the World Bank and OECD notwithstanding capital-intensive programs which promised much and have not delivered fully on their promise.  The issue at hand is the harmonisation of customs data. It might at first sound irrelevant or trivial, yet it is the key enabler for most Customs Modernisation initiatives. While there is still much anticipation in regard to the forthcoming deliberation and outcome of the WCO’s Globally Networked Customs (GNC) initiative at June’s WCO Policy Commission session in Brussels, there is significant support for this approach on the African continent. The momentum needs to be maintained.

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