Hello,

Me and my wife have the opportunity to buy a European (NL-registered so Left Hand Drive) car which is currently parked in South Africa.
Before doing so we would like to figure out the paper works.

The plan is to use the car on some trips in South Africa-Namibia-Botswana and leave the car in either of the countries to pick it up another time (like next year) for another trip and so on.
We don’t really plan to visit any places outside these three countries.

We have some questions on the possibility of our plan:

1)Is it possible to cross the borders between South Africa-Namibia-Botswana without a carnet de passage?
The messages we get on this subject are confusing; South Africa-Namibia-Botswana are supposed to be a toll-free zone, so travel wouldn’t be a hassle, and a carnet-stamp isn’t needed. (We did this before in south African registered cars) People say you need to stamp the carnet only on entrance or leave of the total zone containing these three countries. But has anybody experience in traveling these South Africa-Namibia-Botswana borders in an European registered car, without even showing (let alone stamping) a carnet de passage?

2)Is there any rules that forbid you storing a Euro-registered car for a year or so in South Africa-Namibia-Botswana? We want to leave the car somewhere secure, on private property and take it for a spin a year later. (and be possible to cross borders again between South Africa-Namibia-Botswana).

3)Is it true that LHD vehicles can’t be imported/registered in South Africa-Namibia-Botswana? So selling a Euro car to locals is impossible?

We hope someone can help us and has some useful tips

Nanja & Jelle, Holland