Third party insurance in East Africa

Third party insurance in Africa is the source of much mystery, expense and rip-off /bribery opportunity.  Before leaving we’d heard about a “yellow card” insurance that was not obtainable in SA but would cover us in many African countries.  But every attempt at pinning down the details ended in failure at the end of a phone line in some remote Zimbabwean office.

Namibia and Botswana are fairly straightforward:  In Namibia we paid nothing, presuminably because there is an agreement between SA and Namibia, and Botswana costs 10.- Pula and is valid for a year.

From Zambia it gets more complicated.  Firstly there’s the need for temporary importation documentation, obtainable at the border if you’re not using the AA’s Carnet de Passage.  Secondly, 3^rd party insurance is sold at the borders: one month or three months (we paid US$ 20.- for 3 months = 65,000 Kwacha).  This insurance certificate is inspected at nearly every police roadblock and there are plenty of those: before and/or after every major settlement (our current record is six road blocks in one day of less than 250 km).

At the border we enquired about the “yellow card” and were assured that it could only be obtained from the issuers, The Zambia State Insurance Corporation Ltd, at one of their offices in a major town.  So off we trundled to Livingstone and got the following details after a long chat to one of the regional managers.

• The multi-country insurance is known as the COMESA yellow card.
• It covers most southern and eastern countries between SA and Egypt, but SA, Botswana and Namibia appear to have pulled out of the agreement at the last minute.
• 3^rd party cover must be bought in the country that issues the card and must cover the entire period for which the card is valid, i.e. you get 2 insurances that run concurrently.  In our case we bought Zambian 3^rd party insurance for 6 months (though we only plan to be in Zambia for two weeks or so) and a yellow card that’s valid for the same 6 months in Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan.  (Also covered are DCR, Angola, Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, Zimbabwe most of which you don’t particularly want to go to now anyway, and Egypt which is irrelevant since they do not recognise the Carnet de Passage.)
• The yellow card is not valid in the country in which you buy it.
• The yellow card is only valid in the countries specified and paid for.
• An approximate period per onward country must be given, but the details are not documented and the actual period per country is quite flexible.  We purchased 30 days per specified country but we can stay a day or three months in any one.
• The costs are outlined in the table below.  We paid US $ 60.- for the yellow card and 85 000 Kwacha for the 6 month cover in Zambia. 

The purpose of all of this?  The yellow card is well accepted in member countries and will hopefully prevent confusion and rip-off in countries where border officials and police are less friendly than in Zambia.

The accepted exchange rate from Rand to Kwacha is 400 Kw/R

If this insurance story still confuses you, try bungi jumping off the Vic Falls bridge to re-arrange the facts.

Yours in Africa,

Riff-raff

PS  Get red (for the back) and white (for the front) reflective stickers (about 5 cm x 5 cm) for your vehicle, either before entering Zambia or as soon as you get there.  Normal reflectors are considered inadequate and the cost of not having the stickers is K 54 000 for the back, K 54 000 for the front and another amount, open to the discretion of the examining policeman, to help you remember that it’s a bad thing not to have reflective stickers.  The spares shop at the BP garage in Livingstone will sell you such stickers for K 3 500 with a knowing smile.