ADDIS ABABA: Leaning under the hood, Tesfahun Assefa checks the oil and the radiator. All good. But when he climbs inside and starts the engine, the Lada coughs and kicks out thick black smoke. Tesfahun, a taxi driver in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, has been driving the iconic Soviet car for nine years. The gear stick is unresponsive, the seats have holes and it struggles to exceed 40 kilometres per hour (25 miles per hour) on hills.
"This model is from 1987, I’m only three or four years older,” he says with a smile, tapping the peeling bodywork. The boxy, blue cars were once omnipresent in Addis Ababa and are still often spotted along its long avenues and alleyways. Their heyday was in the 1970s and 1980s when Ethiopia was ruled by the Derg, a Marxist-inspired military regime with close ties to the Soviet Union. But the Lada’s days are numbered after the Ethiopian authorities banned the import of petrol-powered vehicles this year, hoping to push drivers towards new, primarily electric, cars.
And the recent devaluation of the currency, the birr, has increased the cost of importing spare parts. "To repair the engine, I would have to pay between 40,000 and 50,000 birr (between $315 and $400),” said Tesfahun. The whole car is only worth around 65,000 birr and Tesfahun only earns about 500 birr (around $4) a day. Nor can he afford to change cars as the authorities want. "Some of my friends who could afford it have replaced their cars, but those like me who cannot afford it must rely on God,” he said.
‘Deeply sad’
In the Kechene Medhane Alem neighborhood, north of the capital, a mechanic is leaning over the dusty engine of a Lada in his overalls. There is no garage here. Repairs are done outside on the road. "Unfortunately, Lada cars may not last another 10 years, and maybe not even a single year,” said the mechanic, Tamiru Melaku, who is also president of a Lada association.
The 50-year-old, hammering away at a defective part with a mallet, says he is "deeply sad”. "One of the main reasons for the disappearance of these cars is the lack of spare parts... To repair this car, we recovered components from dismantled vehicles, because new parts are simply not available,” he added.
At the transport ministry, expert Yizengaw Yitayih says he doesn’t have exact figures but is sure the number of Ladas in circulation has fallen fast in recent years thanks to the shift to "newer and less polluting ones”. Ladas are increasingly consigned to transporting goods rather than people. Near a market in Sidist Kilo in the capital, dozens of Ladas are parked waiting for customers. Mulugesa Hibdo Biramo, a 34-year-old merchant, is loading one up with potatoes, tomatoes and citrus fruits, divided between the roof and the boot. Ladas still play this vital role since ride-hailing apps don’t offer goods transport. But they are "disappearing slowly” from the streets, said Mulugesa, adding that he saw it as a necessary "transformation”. — AFP