South Africa Sells Zimbabwe Eight Times What It Buys Back
Bilateral trade has nearly doubled since 2021. It is also lopsided by a factor of eight, and Ramaphosa said so out loud. The post South Africa Sells Zimbabwe Eight Times What It Buys Back appeared first on The Rio Times .
South Africa and Zimbabwe concluded their fourth Bi-National Commission in Pretoria on 21 August 2025. Trade between the two nations reached R81 billion (about US$4.6 billion) in 2025, nearly double the levels from 2021. However, South Africa sells roughly eight rand of goods for every one it imports from Zimbabwe, an imbalance that President Cyril Ramaphosa called an impediment to economic development in the region.
The summit, held to mark the 46th Ordinary SADC Summit, saw six instruments signed, focusing on prisons, diplomacy, farming, culture, and gender. These agreements did not address the trade imbalance. Both countries emphasized the importance of beneficiation, or processing raw materials into higher-value products before exporting, rather than relying on tariffs.
Zimbabwe pledged to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers, but the implementation of such measures remains uncertain. The average truck crossing time at Beitbridge, a crucial border crossing, decreased from several days to about 14 hours, thanks to a public-private partnership that modernized the infrastructure and created dedicated lanes for different types of traffic.
While these improvements benefit trade, the most concrete commitment is the potential development of a third bridge and the completion of the Beitbridge One Stop Border Post, which would streamline cross-border logistics. The Bi-National Commission, established in April 2015, has produced over 33 agreements and memoranda, but the focus remains on improving infrastructure and beneficiation to create a more balanced trade relationship.
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