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customs in Africa


harry_harrington

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I will hopefully be having a bit of an Africa frenzy next year and

wonder if I will have any problems travelling with my gear. Between

$20 and 30 thousand worth depending on the trip, and around 100-200

rolls of film. I should be going to Nambia, South Africa and Ethiopia

on seperate trips. Will I get any hassel at customs and is there

anything I can do beforehand to make life easier.

 

Also if any onecan recommend car hire firms in any of the abouve

countries that would be a great help.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Harry.

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Dear Harry

I am not an expert, but I cannot imagine you will have any trouble entering South Africa (where I live). Just make sure you declare everything on entry so that you are able to take it out without any problems. Customs will not try to bribe you in South Africa either, although this may happen in Ethiopia.

In terms of car hire, the best way to do this is to link it to your airticket. If you are flying South African Airways, this is very easy to do. Inside South Africa, the cheapest internal flights between Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg are via Kulula.com, which will then rent you a car (Tazz or Golf) at ZAR150pd (approx. $15pd), unlimited milage.

Hope this helps

Stephen Louw

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Harry,

 

I have never had any problems at all bringing my camera equipment into South Africa or Namibia. You might declare it at entering, but I have never done that myself. The biggest problem I have faced was how to get all this equipment on board as handluggage. But that is another question.

 

From South Africa I have also travelled by car (rented 4x4) into Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland. Getting through customs can be quite testing at times. But never have they eving looked at my camera equipment. I had to fill in lots of forms for the car and even had to write down the serial number for the car radio (just made up a number). But nobody at all looked at what kind of luggage I had in my car. At the Botswana-Zambia border there was a truck driver before me with a big shotgun. When asked why he needed a shotgun, he just replied: "supplementary food". No more questions where asked and he was allowed to keep the gun!!!

 

What kind of car do you need in these countries? Of course you can go to the big companies like Avis and Hertz. But if you would like to have a 4x4, the best company in Southern Africa is Britz. They specialize in fully equipped 4x4's with full camping gear. Perfectly equipped for real bush tours. And their service is better than perfect.

http://www.britz.co.za/

 

Have some great trips!

Hans

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As already stated by Matthew, South Africa seems to have become an

extremely dangerous country to visit. There have been quite a few reports in

the British press recently about tourists being robbed at gunpoint, some

beaten up, raped or even killed. You would need to be very discrete about

your camera gear if you went there; it might be too tempting a target for

somebody. This is the country that invented built in flame throwers as an

optional extra to some cars to deter armed carjackers. A touch drastic

perhaps, but not a very encouraging signal about the current state of the

country.

 

Linked to this whole issue, it seems that some parts of the world are rapidly

becoming no go areas, because of internal unrest, terrororism and high crime

rates. I don't do much overseas travel, but next time I do go abroad I think that

I'd like to visit a country which is both scenic and safe to travel in.

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South Africa, like any other country inthe world, has its problems, and there are places you should be especially careful of. But don't let the prophets of doom scare you off. Keeping your gear underwraps is a good idea, but you would do that anywhere you travelled to, unless you wanted to attract crime.

Generally, South African roads are good, and you will not need a 4x4. Some places require this, but they will tell you in advance.

Stephen

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Allen,

your view on the world outside the UK is rather gloomy. Perhaps because you don't go overseas very much, as you mentioned yourself. If you would travel to these places, you would find out that what is written in the press is not always true. The british tabloids only write want they think is sensational and sells. Often it has very little to do with the truth. A few years ago there were some robberies and killings in Miami and then suddenly Florida was off limits. Focus shifts.

 

In reality there is crime in many countries, including the countries most of us call home. But often crime is concentrated around the cities, where most people are. So these are also the most "target rich enviroments" for criminals. Specially the wildlife areas in southern Africa are very safe compared to the cities. If you are sensible, it is nothing to be scared about. Just don't leave your camera gear in the car in sight. And make sure you aren't travelling at night, which is dangerous also because of the traffic.

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Hans, I don't know about gloomy, but certainly cautious. The world is a big

place and most countries these days have some crime; I just don't see the

point in visiting countries with very high rates of violent crime, which is

particularly aimed at tourists.

 

Like you say, most of this crime will be in and around the big cities, so

anybody spending most of their time out in the game reserves taking pictures

would probably be fairly safe.

 

My own interests are mainly in landscape photography, rather than wildlife as

such and there are many places in the world that are much more attractive

destinations for me than South Africa, before even considering the crime

issue; which isn't to say that I don't think that there are any good locations to

photograph in South Africa. I've seen quite a few good pictures in and around

Table Mountain, with interesting heathers and other flowers and I'm sure that

there are many other good locations too. But, unless the authorities can get to

grips with the crime problem, many people will not wish to take the risk of

travelling there.

 

PS It has been noticable over the last year or two in the UK, how few

Americans are holidaying over here, which has affected the tourist industry

fairly badly. And the reasons for this are absolutely nothing to do with safety or

even perceived safety within the UK. But has a lot to do with hysterical

reporting or misreporting of events like the Foot and Mouth epidemic last year

and myths about mad cow disease, plus the fallout after September 11th

which seems to have put a lot of people off from travelling outwith America,

even though European airport security is far more stringent in general than

the US equivalent. Yet, just after September 11th, flights to the US from Britain

were back to normal and very busy, yet virtually empty coming from the US to

Britain. It takes a lot more to put British people off from travelling than your

average American tourist I guess and that isn't being gloomy I'm afraid.

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The crime issue is somewhat off-topic, but Allan's point is that it "seems" to be an issue, i.e. it is something that the media hype and influence public perceptions. I have lived in Cape Town for 40 years and have never been mugged or felt personally threatened (nor have any members of my family). Nature photography is one of the safest things I know - other people are a risk if you walk around with expensive cameras anywhere in the world. If you are too scared to travel, then look at my photos of the area instead...
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Harry,

I have just come back from South Africa; people get killed and mugged but also in London or New York City. I have not had any problem specifically about camera gear; you might have to declare the value; a customs offical once asked to look at my gear ( but I reckon that was personal curiosity) and that was it. As it has been said here before: be discreet - don't flash your wealth around and it should be fine.

Have you thought about insurance?

Enjoy your trip.

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Customs:

You may bring in duty-free gifts and souvenirs to the total value of R1,250 plus 400 cigarettes, 50 cigars, 250 grams of tobacco, 2 litres of wine, 1 litre of other alcoholic beverages, 50ml of perfume, and 250ml of toilet water into South Africa without incurring duties. Thereafter duty is levied at 20%. You may not import or export more than R200 in South African banknotes. The alcohol and tobacco allowance applies only to people over 18.

 

You may be able to find more info from someone at the SARS (South African Revenue Service): http://www.sars.gov.za/

 

With $20-30,000 bucks worth of camera gear, it would probably be a very good idea to declare the fact that you are bringing this in - and taking it out of the country again. There is some sort of proceedure you'll have to go through, but it should be relatively painless, but it also means you have to check in at customs on your way out again so they know you've left with that equipment. You may have to leave a deposit (perhaps up to 20% of the value of the equipment, which is sometimes the case in other countries - don't know about SA), refundable on exit. If in doubt, try e-mailing someone. Also, don't forget to check it out of your home contry, just in case the jokers their decide to levy import duty on it all when you come home!

 

I don't have any experience with Namibia or Ethiopia; proceedures will be similar I'd imagine, but probably more chaotic (much more so in Ethiopia than Namibia!).

 

As for the negative "you're going to get shot in the head" whilst in South Africa advice which has been doled out above, chances are very much against it. Would you head down to the Bronx and start snapping away at people? South Central LA? How about Brixton or Manchester's Moss Side (I noticed you were British). I doubt it. Yet people will decide to go gallivanting into Soweto and expect to find everything peachy there. And guess what, chances are that you'll be fine if you do - especially if you go with a guide.

 

It's also very location specific. Whilst in JNB (Johannesburg), I'm paranoid, whilst many other parts of the coutry are very, very safe. Still, caution is always warranted, wherever you are!

 

Maybe read http://www.photo.net/africa/stapley/safrica and the reader's comments at the end.

 

HTH

 

James.

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I really wish they would introduce an "edit your comment" function...

 

Anyway, also look at:

 

http://www.sars.gov.za/ce/brochures/customs/brochure_customs_baggage.htm

 

http://www.sars.gov.za/ce/brochures/customs/brochure_customs_duty_free.htm

 

http://www.sars.gov.za/ce/brochures/customs/quick_reference_guide.htm

- this one also gives you some contact details. (Snailmail and telephone).

 

HTH.

 

J.

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