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Driving through Zimbabwe
Hello,
I have to drive from Johannesburg to Tete in Mozambique at the end of Apri, and obviously I have two choices. a) Drive through Mozambique. This is long and tedious. b) Drive thhrough Zimbabwe, and exit at Nyamapanda. I have heard rumours that getting a foreign registered vehicle into Zim has become VERY expensive. Someone told me that the carbon tax has been increased to US$200 and that there was an adddtional charge of US$300, and that's excluding the bridge fees and insurance. Has anyone any recent info? The last time I did this trip was November last year. Regards, Marc - Johannesburg |
#2
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Driving through Zimbabwe
"Marc Lurie" schreef in bericht ... Hello, I have to drive from Johannesburg to Tete in Mozambique at the end of Apri, and obviously I have two choices. a) Drive through Mozambique. This is long and tedious. b) Drive thhrough Zimbabwe, and exit at Nyamapanda. I have heard rumours that getting a foreign registered vehicle into Zim has become VERY expensive. Someone told me that the carbon tax has been increased to US$200 and that there was an adddtional charge of US$300, and that's excluding the bridge fees and insurance. Has anyone any recent info? The last time I did this trip was November last year. Regards, Marc - Johannesburg Last time I entered Zim was back in 2004 and the Carbon Tax was 30 US$ or 20 ?... 200US$ ??? What's Mugabe doing? If this is true then I will advice my customers to watch the Vic Falls at the Zambian side and walk across the bridge for the view on the Zim side. |
#3
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Driving through Zimbabwe
"Hans Schoelink" wrote in message . .. "Marc Lurie" schreef in bericht ... Hello, I have to drive from Johannesburg to Tete in Mozambique at the end of Apri, and obviously I have two choices. a) Drive through Mozambique. This is long and tedious. b) Drive thhrough Zimbabwe, and exit at Nyamapanda. I have heard rumours that getting a foreign registered vehicle into Zim has become VERY expensive. Someone told me that the carbon tax has been increased to US$200 and that there was an adddtional charge of US$300, and that's excluding the bridge fees and insurance. Has anyone any recent info? The last time I did this trip was November last year. Regards, Marc - Johannesburg Last time I entered Zim was back in 2004 and the Carbon Tax was 30 US$ or 20 ?... 200US$ ??? What's Mugabe doing? If this is true then I will advice my customers to watch the Vic Falls at the Zambian side and walk across the bridge for the view on the Zim side. I drove through Zim from Joberg to Zam last Christmas. It was one of the most interesting and pleasant trips of my trip-filled life, as we met and chatted with many a person, had the road to ourselves, and had an opportunity to learn a lot of truth, and dispel a lot of fiction, about how Mugabe's policies were impacting the country. The hardest and ugliest part of the trip were the border crossings, because that's where you had to deal with the authorities. The crossing into Zim from SA was not bad; unfamiliarity with all the paperwork was the big hassle, but I don't remember the carbon tax being all that unreasonable; certianly not in the $200 range. The crossing from Zim to Zam was a bit of a hassle, as they required that I show some of the paperwork from my entrance, and as I had a rental car they claimed that the notarized copy of the registration (or was it insurance) form was not sufficient. I think he was fishing for a bribe, but the whole hassle was such an inconvenience, I refused to pay off and we had a stalemate for about 10 minutes before he stamped my papers and let me go. I believe I remember that, when we crossed back into Zim from Vic Falls, our original insurance from the first entry was still valid, but we had to repay the Carbon Tax. Again, I seem to remember it being $20 or $30 or something...nothing offensive, but enough to be inconvienient and frustrating. The big thing I remember, though, was all the misinformation out there. I had heard that you had to carry ALL your fuel across Zim, that you could not find ANY grocery stores, that ALL the whites were terrified and in hiding, that the government influence was everywere, and that the roads were in complete disarray and deterioration. None of that was true, so I would be very cautious about changing your trip plans without first-hand info. --riverman |
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Driving through Zimbabwe
Riverman, thanks for your reply.
I completely agree with you about misinformation regarding Zimbabwe. I travel through the country several times a year, usually on the way to northern Mozambique. The roads are still in a pretty good condition and there is no shortage of stores and shops and I saw no evidence of whites hiding in fear :-) However, you do say that you had the road to yourselves. That is the most striking evidence of the problems in Zimbabwe. The Beit Bridge - Masvingo road used to be full of vehicles. There are virtually none any more, save for foreign registrations. Fuel supply is erratic at best. The reason I posted my original thread was because I've heard that the changes have happened as recently as a month back, and I need up to date information to decide whether to go through Zim, or all the way through Mozambique at the end of the month. I certainly don't want to waste 2 days travel to find out that the carbon tax is indeed several hundred US$. The "scam" that they have going when you try to exit Zim is an old trick. They are looking for bribes. They've stopped trying it with me because I refuse to fall into their trap. The trouble is that so many tourists are intimidated by horror stories, and believe that bribery is the only way to get around. This feeds the fire of corruption. Regards, Marc On Sat, 1 Apr 2006 10:01:47 +0800, "riverman" wrote: I drove through Zim from Joberg to Zam last Christmas. It was one of the most interesting and pleasant trips of my trip-filled life, as we met and chatted with many a person, had the road to ourselves, and had an opportunity to learn a lot of truth, and dispel a lot of fiction, about how Mugabe's policies were impacting the country. The hardest and ugliest part of the trip were the border crossings, because that's where you had to deal with the authorities. The crossing into Zim from SA was not bad; unfamiliarity with all the paperwork was the big hassle, but I don't remember the carbon tax being all that unreasonable; certianly not in the $200 range. The crossing from Zim to Zam was a bit of a hassle, as they required that I show some of the paperwork from my entrance, and as I had a rental car they claimed that the notarized copy of the registration (or was it insurance) form was not sufficient. I think he was fishing for a bribe, but the whole hassle was such an inconvenience, I refused to pay off and we had a stalemate for about 10 minutes before he stamped my papers and let me go. I believe I remember that, when we crossed back into Zim from Vic Falls, our original insurance from the first entry was still valid, but we had to repay the Carbon Tax. Again, I seem to remember it being $20 or $30 or something...nothing offensive, but enough to be inconvienient and frustrating. The big thing I remember, though, was all the misinformation out there. I had heard that you had to carry ALL your fuel across Zim, that you could not find ANY grocery stores, that ALL the whites were terrified and in hiding, that the government influence was everywere, and that the roads were in complete disarray and deterioration. None of that was true, so I would be very cautious about changing your trip plans without first-hand info. --riverman |
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