DOT strategizing against foreign junk un-roadworthy vehicles being dumped in Southern Africa

In a bid to bring down the rate of carnage on South African roads, including KwaZulu Natal, the KZN Transport Department has thrown its weight behind an international investigation into foreign junk vehicles that are being sold to Africa.

The KZN Director of Motor Transport Services (MTS) that is responsible for licensing and regulating legalities of motor vehicles in the province, Ms Sue Grobbelaar, is part of a national delegation that is looking into ways through which the country can curtail the rapidly growing importation of old and often un-roadworthy vehicles to Southern Africa.

Ms Grobbelaar says the booming business of importing these vehicles is fraught with corruption, irregularities and fraudulent conduct. She added that most of these vehicles did not meet basic requirements of the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), including being left-hand driven and having manipulated engine and gear box numbers.

"As from the year 1999, left hand-driven vehicles became illegal and the same has been the case with trucks since the year 2000," recalls Ms Grobbelaar who has been away from 28^th August to 5^th September this year on the special mission to look into ways to resolve this challenge.

"It’s legal business in Dubai. There are many junk vehicle houses which specialize in selling these vehicles to Africa – auctioneers sell up to 7 000 per day. You should see the way it works, it looks like a stock exchange," she adds.

Ms Grobbelaar points out: "What they do is, the year on which the vehicle was made gets torn so that they can manipulate it – to make the vehicle seem newer than it is. Many of these vehicles are stolen but not all. You have syndicates operating in Dubai. We were in Dubai for two days. Then we moved on to Japan."

She says the way Japan controls old un-roadworthy vehicles by making it impossible to drive them on their roads. A motor vehicle must be tested for roadworthiness after every two years. Trucks are tested once a year.

Any truck older than three years must be upgraded otherwise it fails at the test station – it simply falls over if its shock absorbers are old. When it is tested, it is lifted up 30 degrees high on one side. This is because they are preventing the trucks from falling over when they go round corners on the road.

The test is self-operating – a great amount of the testing work is done by computers. Every bit of the vehicle gets tested. There is also a Motor Bike Test Station. The only test they do physically is underneath the trucks using hammers and flickering light. There are two examiners. There are five ‘eyes’ – checking rust, cv joints etc. Dirty trucks are failed.

Says Ms Globbelaar: "A test station takes up to 750 vehicles per day. The test is so expensive, it’s better to buy a new vehicle - let alone having to pay for higher insurance premiums for an older vehicle – the older it is the more expensive it becomes to insure."

She says Japan motorists are law abiding because their vehicles have chips on the registration that can tell a traffic police officer if the vehicle has been through regular tests or not. There is no 20-day grace for a new unregistered vehicle: as soon as you buy your vehicle, you put on a new registration plate Vehicle disks are accompanied by a number plate with a computer micro chip. Test stations and licensing offices are situated at the same place.

Seemingly, it is better to get a new vehicle through the insurance after it has been "stolen." Once the vehicle has been reported to the police as stolen, the owner then gets a new vehicle. So what happens to the old "missing" vehicles? They get sold to Africa via Durban. Apparently, it is a logistical nightmare to try to investigate these "stolen" vehicles.

"In Japan old vehicles can survive because the speed limit is 85 km/h due to the space problem and here they fall apart quicker because the speed limit is higher.

"Some 4 000 vehicles per year go through Durban. Presently, 25 000 of them are under investigation in this country. We work with International Police Service. These vehicles are parked in the streets – there are thousands of them. They are second-hands – about 7 to 8 years old.

Few people will buy our legal vehicles if the situation is allowed to go on unchallenged. So the main objective of the Japan trip was to evaluate and assess their system of dealing with these vehicles, and to see if it was both practical and viable to implement a similar system of controls in South Africa without interfering with the principle of Free Trade that exists with our neighboring states.

As can be seen, the wholesale fraudulent and corrupt activities that are prevalent in the "Grey" import industry are due in main to the many loopholes in the existing "privatized" system, and with the collusion of "dirty" officials, this is a recipe for disaster.

Once the whole process is centralized and brought under control of a Department of Transport facility that is able to coordinate the efforts of the various other government agencies involved, there will be no opportunity to sell or use these vehicles within South Africa.

The aim of this project is to regulate the industry so all players are on an equal footing with regard to the importation and onward exportation of these "Grey" imports. Once a sensible balance is achieved, it is believed that the incidence of "junk" second-hand vehicles being dumped into Southern Africa via Durban, will no longer be economically viable for the importer, and the huge volumes of imports currently being experienced should begin to diminish to a reasonable figure.

Interview with Ms Sue Globbelaar of Motor Transport Services conducted by Piwe Mkhize of the KZN Transport Department’s Communication Support Directorate (piwe.mkhize@kzntransport.gov.za)

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