Cross-Border

Angola Operations 

Members must ensure that their vehicles are in excellent shape before venturing into Angola, and drivers are equipped with emergency repair kits and spares when possible.

If vehicles break down in Angola – the recovery of vehicles and doing repairs in Angola is a nightmare. When drivers and trucks overstay their allotted visa time inside Angola, as you exit the Angolan border you have to pay penalties for overstaying in the country.

Road conditions: very bad and in certain areas a 60km stretch can take up to eight hours.

Drivers: choose your drivers very carefully - in Angola you drive on the opposite side of the road to South Africa. This becomes difficult when driving on the right hand side of the road on narrow, bad winding roads with big hills and difficult declines – especially where the steering wheel is on the right hand side of the vehicle.

Content edited from article in publication: INTO AFRICA BUZZ.  

Customs Valuation Update

In response to a request for an update on the proposed customs valuation amendments, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) Valuation: Legislative Interpretation division advised as follows (please remember that Section 66 of the Customs and Excise Act (the Act) refers to “Transaction Value” and Section 67 of the Act to “Adjustments to Price Actually Paid or Payable”):

“The changes to Sections 66(11)(a), 67(1)(e) and 67(4)(a) of the Customs Act, which were promulgated and published in the Government Gazette 31781 dated 8 January 2009, will come into operation on 1 October 2009 as the implementation date to be fixed by the President by proclamation (currently in the process of obtaining the Minister's approval/sign-off) in the Gazette.

The amendment removes the words "in a container as defined in section 1(2)" and "are packed in a container as defined in section 1(2)", "if not so packed in a container" from the current wording of Sections 66(11)(a); 67(1)(e) and 67(4)(a) of the said Act.

The effect of this amendment is that the place where the goods were packed into a container in a foreign country, for export to the Republic, will no longer be regarded as the port or place of export and the full cost of transporting the goods from an exporter's premises to the port or place where they are to be loaded on board a ship or any vehicle (e.g. inland freight charges) will be dutiable, thereby bringing it into line with break bulk cargo.”

State Warehouse

SARS has announced the insertion of Rules 17.06(a) and 17.06(b) to the Act relating to “Rent to be Paid on Goods in a State Warehouse – Date of Implementation”.

(a) Notwithstanding the provisions in these rules relating to the payment of rent, with effect from 8 January 2009 no rent is payable in respect of any goods removed from a place deemed to be a State warehouse as contemplated in section 43 (2). [As a means of reference Section 43 of the Act relates to “Disposal of goods on failure to make due entry, goods imported in contravention of any other law and seized and abandoned goods”];

(b) Delivery of such goods is subject to rule 17.01(b)(ii). [As a means of reference Rule 17.01 to the Act relates to “Rent to be paid on goods in a State warehouse”]. 

Tax Charges – DRC 

Tax charges on transporters foreign to DRC have been stopped.   

Overloads at Kaphiri Mposhi 

We have been invited to a meeting with the heads at RDA, date to be decided but in the next 10 days or so (details not available at present).If you would like to be involved (or forward information for use) please contact Gavin Kelly.  

PROCEDURE FOR BEING WEIGHED AT WEIGHBRIDGES 

Many of the weighbridges in the region are giving transporters serious problems (Kapiri Mposhi and Beitbridge most recently). 

These can be due to inaccuracies within the weighbridges, unlevel approaches to the weighbridges, inexperienced or corrupt weighbridge staff carrying out questionable weighing procedures, straight corruption, incorrect loading or even drivers adding contraband to their loads. 

Whilst we cannot eliminate all the problems, we can at least help ourselves with one procedure and that is: how the truck moves on to the weighbridge. 

Experience of transporters has shown that to minimize the chance of inaccurate readings, the truck should move very slowly on to the weighbridge. In this way, the momentum is reduced and the readings are less likely to be influenced by the weighbridge staff. 

Of course there is a negative to this procedure and that is that the weighbridge staff can get upset by the slow movement of the vehicle and can, in extreme cases, fine the driver for not carrying out the instructions of the weighbridge staff. 

There isn’t an easy solution, other than to approach the weighbridge at a reasonable pace, but then, just before the front wheel goes on to the platform, the vehicle is slowed down to a crawl. Obviously, surge in tankers is affected by this approach.