AfricaPress-Tanzania: WITH the ongoing state of uncertainty that has left hundreds of cargo trucks stranded at Tanzania’s border posts with Rwanda and Kenya, the Tanzania Truck Owners Association (TATO) has asked the government to re-negotiate with its counterparts for permanent solutions.
Authorities of Rwanda and Kenya have recently been denying access to Tanzanian drivers to cross their borders for the fear of spreading Covid-19.
They do so even when the drivers test negative for coronavirus and eventually present their certificates from Tanzania laboratories at the border posts.
Rwanda, for instance, requires that upon arrival at the Rusumo border post, Tanzanian drivers should offload the cargo from their trucks and unload to the Rwandan trucks, a move strongly opposed by TATO.
“This is typically unfair to us, while our trucks are denied access to Rwanda, but they are allowed here, this imbalance isn’t accepted at all,” TATO Chairperson Ms Angelina Ngalula told journalists yesterday.
According to Ms Ngalula, such inconvenience brings loss to truck owners, the association and the government at large, and that immediate measures should be taken to rescue the situation.
Another concern is on road toll fees for which Tanzania in 2013 lowered the charges for Rwandan trucks from 500 US dollars to 152 US dollars, from the Rusumo border to Dar es Salaam, same to what was paid by Tanzanian trucks when they drove from Rusumo to Kigali.
“Initially, the fee was supposed to be charged per kilometre but our government saw the importance of harmonising the business and reduced the charges for our counterparts, there should be fairness,” she said.
The association members are worried that if these challenges won’t be addressed immediately, they may end up losing their customers and close their business.
“Since we aren’t allowed to cross the borders on grounds that they don’t trust certificates from Tanzania’s laboratories, our clients may start relying from Rwandan trucks as a result our business will be closed permanently, we don’t want to reach that situation,” she explained.
As of Sunday, more than 800 trucks carrying various goods including food and drugs were stranded at Tanzanian’s border post with Kenya.
The border disputes also cause delays in delivery, as a result trucks owners are supposed to pay a fine of 120,000/- per day for the delay to bring back the empty containers to the ship.
In this case there are some trucks that haven’t returned their containers for more than three weeks, hence being subjected to pay the fine accordingly.
“During the peak of Covid-19 there was a smooth flow of essential goods to our neighboring countries, the same should apply now. Our drivers have played a great role,” she appealed.
Responding, Kagera Regional Commissioner Brigadier General Marco Gaguti said they have been in contact with the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications regarding the standoff.
“Because the matter is to be addressed at the country level, we at the region have been working to provide security at the Rusumo border as well as doing all the coordination to have the challenges solved,” he told the ‘Daily News’ yesterday.
“Many trucks were stuck at the Rusumo border and Isaka in Kahama, but with efforts that were done on Sunday, some of them have already left the border, we hope that the situation will be contained very soon,” he added.
On his part, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Dr Damas Ndumbaro, told journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday that they were in talks with Kenyan authorities regarding the cross border movement of freight trucks.
“We have observed that there are times when the government is not the one fuelling hurdles at the borders but few officials working at the borders, they are sometimes responsible for such tensions,” he noted.
Dr Ndumbaro said they had an agreement with Kenya regarding Covid-19 certificates but their counterparts were not complying, adding that, hopefully, the two governments would solve the matter through talks.
