The science of moving rare sculptures through border posts

African border posts are not for the faint-hearted, says Washington Muketiwa. Even more so when you are transporting rare sculptures, sometimes representing an entire community’s livelihood in your truck. Muketiwa is responsible for bringing artworks from Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe to South Africa from where they are exported the world over. “We make the trip about three times a year, leaving from Cape Town to Malawi and back,” he says. He knows the route like the back of his hand. From Cape Town they head north through the Beitbridge border post into Zimbabwe, then through the Nyamapanda post into Mozambique before going into Malawi via the Mwanza border post. They pick up sculptures at Mangochi before going back to Zimbabwe and then to the Chirundu border post into Zambia for pick up in Lusaka. They finally head back to Zimbabwe for their final collections before hitting the road back to Cape Town again. Depending on the efficiency of the border posts, it can take anything from two weeks to two months. “You never know,” says Muketiwa who considers Beitbridge to be the best functioning of all the border posts he uses. “It may be the busiest, but it is also the easiest.” And the most difficult? “Definitely Nyamapanda. The systems are slow, it is still all done manually and it closes at 6pm – so your timing has to be perfect.” And your paperwork has to be in order, but that goes for all the border posts. “There are very few facilities at these border posts where one ends up sitting for hours – sometimes days – waiting to be processed. It is a tedious process that can be costly.” CAPTION Erick Ruvinga and Washington Muketiwa with an artwork sculpted by Ruvinga's father, Levi. BEST BORDER POST BEITBRIDGE WORST BORDER POST NYAMAPANDA Erick Ruvinga works with Muketiwa. They import the sculptures made by artists in the southern African countries into South Africa where they are sold and exported globally. “The duties are exceptionally high and one can only wonder why we do not have free trade areas in southern Africa. There is a lot of talk of growing intra-African trade but it is such a difficult process at times that it is easy to understand why people shy away from it,” says Ruvinga. “Governments in southern Africa need to work far more closely to find ways of making it easier to move goods between countries and to ensure there are systems in place that speak to each other in order to minimise paperwork and facilitate trade.”