Packed to the hilt…A “cross-border” taxi leaves South Africa along the N1.

As the clock ticked towards 01:00 AM on Sunday the 30th of January, Esaja’s business development lead and I were at Beitbridge border post watching a horror movie unfold. Arguably one of the 5 busiest in Sub-Saharan Africa, Beitbridge links South Africa to Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa. $5bn worth of official trade flows between it and Zimbabwe alone annually. Over 65% of trade is informal, happening under the radar of statisticians and waiting for creative solutions to channel it towards routes that enable nations to grow. Only if we realise that #BordersMustFall.

An immigration officer and supervisor of the Republic of South Africa gave two Zambian women two days for them to travel to the country, shop and return to their country. The distance between Lusaka (Zambia’s capital city) and Johannesburg (South Africa’s commercial nerve centre) is 1799 km (over 22 by road hours at the very least). Women are the foot soldiers of Intra-African trade. From crossing Songwe aside the shores of Lake Malawi, marching through Busia in Uganda/Kenya to flying back from Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, I’ve seen and marveled at how brave & industrious women work to support their families and overcome daunting odds. Helping them overcome airline baggage limitations and getting helped with rich insights that underpin the future we are building, are magical moments for me. Therefore, I shrivelled as this officer first gave them two days and then proceeded to literally bark at them when they fearfully registered their dissatisfaction with the dates. Never mind that the immigration protocol of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is such that citizens within the region can both travel freely and have up to 90 days to spend in each others countries.

If South Africa is to break the stagnation deadlock of a slowing domestic economy, it needs to eliminate these fragments of a vicious apartheid legacy and work with the rest of the region and greater continent. Big companies like MTN and the apple farmers of the Western Cape understood this very well (that particular thought occurred to me when biting into their produce in Kigali, Rwanda). Solidarity is the way to transformative growth, not solitude. The markets needed to create the jobs and opportunities South Africa requires to grow, will not be unlocked by punitive behaviour, especially from people who were themselves oppressed up to 1994. The rest of the continent, especially frontline states like Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, accommodated South African freedom fighters and bore scars for it. In the context of the two Zambian traders, their government suffered deeply for supporting apartheid’s downfall.

”It would be very sad to see the breakup of such an important international body and I am not happy about it…But the issue of South Africa is very important to us.” – Zambia’s First President, Kenneth Kaunda threatening to leave the commonwealth if Britain did not impose sanctions against apartheid South Africa in 1986. (source: New York Times)

As a young African who was born on the day the wall of Berlin fell, it saddens me that we in Africa are still quoting history instead of shaping the future, together. No matter how cruel the apartheid system was or fresh its scars are, we must find a way forward. Xenophobic tendencies only serve to perpetuate old systems. That is sadly how the rest of the continent perceives areas of South Africa. Our shared opportunity is to transform this continent.

An inevitable issue that comes with border controls is corruption. Experienced traders recounted how they’ve resorted to putting money in their passports as part of their attempt to get the required number of days. Bus drivers, immigration officials and touts that surround the border fuel very harmful practices that compromise the integrity of the nation.

In setting out on the journey to build Esaja.com, I was well aware of the challenges that stand in the way of an open, prosperous and connected continent. In this light, some fights are worth our time. We live, breath, and operate in the same atmosphere as the customers we are building a better future for; African traders. Big ones, not so big ones and small ones. All of them. Those two women are probably mothers working for their families and greater communities. An SME or two will tell you of their loyalty and consistency. I and Esaja as collective will fight for them. This is only a curtain raiser.

#BordersMustFall
Clinton D. Mutambo – Founder & Chief Esajan

Twiiter: @cmutambo  |   Email: [email protected]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *