Zimbabwe slaps health inspection fee on inbound cargo

Zimbabwe has introduced yet another fee for cargo entering its borders. In a communiqué sent to the Road Freight Association (RFA), and effective since September 10, the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare requires all goods – whether or not in transit – which require health clearance to pay an inspection fee. The inspection of special cargo that includes human remains now costs $20, while general cargo carried on light trucks pays $15 and general cargo on heavy trucks has to pay $25. According to RFA spokesman Gavin Kelly, this is despite a meeting between South African and Zimbabwean authorities earlier this year to address exactly this problem. “South African operators remain unduly prejudiced when crossing the borders into Zimbabwe due to the number of taxes, duties and levies that are not imposed on foreign operators coming into South Africa,” he said. “The fees, taxes or levies are just introduced without fair warning and do not take the SADC protocol into account.” He said the RFA had set up the meeting between South Africa’s Cross-Border Road Transport Agency (CBRTA) and Zimbabwean authorities that had taken place earlier this year. This was followed by a multilateral summit in Pretoria in August where Zimbabwe was present. “The South African trucker just has to keep on paying and new tariffs are introduced all the time. In August at the summit no-one from Zimbabwe mentioned yet another new tariff was on the cards, but a week or two later the letter arrives,” he said. “These practices are extremely questionable.” The CBRTA maintains that the only way to address issues such as these is through the equalisation of charges across the SADC region – a matter that SADC itself has taken up.