Buy and register a motorcycle in South Africa or Namibia - Any advice?
 

Hi guys,

we are two German citizens who want to go to SA, buy two bikes and ride around SA and adjacent countries for three months. We want to then sell the bikes again. We fly in and out of Cape Town.

We heard that the bike market there should allow us to find the bikes at a reasonable price. But what about the registration? How much time and money should we plan for that? Can the registration be denied and void our plans?

If SA is a bad start for this plan for any reason, would it be easier in Nambia?

Thanks for any hints!

// Hauke

Hi Hauke

its not a problem to register an south african vehicle in your name.

You just need your foreign passport and 2 passport photos to apply for a Traffic Register Certificate. With that you can register a vehicle in your name. And you need an address in South Africa.

Services for foreign nationals

Bikes you can find on #1 Classifieds in South Africa. Find Free Classified Ads on Gumtree ZA Jürgen from LeCap has sometimes some bikes from travellers for sale as well and if you are on the east coast Moto Zulu is worth a try.

Cheers

SR

A similar thread from a few months ago: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...oid-need-69788

Very easy as per Southern Roads, i can assist with paperwork and sites to find bikes if required, no chargebier

check out our local wilddogs.za.net

So if we buy a bike in ZA can we travel through Africa without a Carnet?
We have US/Canada passports...

Well, not really, depends what you mean with Africa... You can travel with a ZA plate in ZA, NAM, BOTS and MOZ (with a TIP) but you will need a CdP for most other countries...
Cheers

Friends of mine travelled with SA number plates on a VW Golf all the way up to Kenya through Zambia, Malawi, Tansania, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda without a Carnet. So it's possible but not sure if it's easier than with a Carnet. They sold their car in Kenya to another traveller and was surely easier without the carnet.

Greets


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Without carnet
 

You can travel the as Globetrotter said without carnet.

You should have the south african logbook of the vehicle with you when you cross borders the licence disc alone will not work.

Cheers

[QUOTE=Globetrotter;440872]Friends of mine travelled with SA number plates on a VW Golf all the way up to Kenya through Zambia, Malawi, Tansania, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda without a Carnet. So it's possible but not sure if it's easier than with a Carnet. They sold their car in Kenya to another traveller and was surely easier without the carnet.

Greets

Thanks for this info, Globetrotter.
Guess we can give it a try and see how far we can get.
Cheers!

i just travelled around for 5 months , no carnet , i think the only country you may need one is egypt , all others temporary import permit also got the bike in my name , a few niggly problems at the start but got affidavit to say i was a tourist ,and ended up getting it all done the next day on the spot

Interesting, can you tell us what countries you got the TIP for and if you had to pay a deposit?
Also can you expand a bit more about the affidavit?
In times when the CdP is getting more difficult and expensive to get this info could be precious...
Cheers

Well, I suppose we better stick to the good ol' Carnet...

Is it the case that you can go to any SADC member country in a SADC registered car without a carnet? That would get you up to Tanzania, but not Kenya. I've used that system for Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa with a Botswana registered Hilux. We just had to pay various fees at some of the borders, including temporary insurance (and some spurious fees at the Zim border).

Here's a list of SADC countries.

I'll sell you a 2009 gsa fully loaded in January if you like , carnet included. I'm in Egypt now on my way south.

Hey Hauke - How did you go with getting the bikes registered?

I'm an Australian citizen traveling to South Africa in November 2014 to buy a new motorbike from a dealership that I will want to register there. The dealership has told me that I will need a Traffic Registration Certificate before I can get a bike registered and that I need to personally be in South Africa with a valid passport to obtain the certificate.

So I'm curious how you went and whether you have any tips for when I get there.

Cheers