WeeklySA_AdminIMPUNITY: Regular official raids on street’s shady car leaders yield no results
By Vusi Xaba
In a seemingly futile exercise, a multi-discipline team of law enforcement agencies backed by police, swooped on car dealerships operating illegally in Malvern, east of Johannesburg.
Police, accompanying officials from the Gauteng Department of Economic Development (GDED) and Department of Labour, conducted a raid in Jules Street where undocumented foreign nationals run unregistered, non-tax compliant car dealerships.
Some of the operators were found to possess fraudulent business documents, and selling suspiciously stolen cars – some stripped for parts to be sold. A few of the business had employees who were found to be unregistered, enjoying no rights under the labour relations legislation.
Weekly SA Mirror accompanied the law enforcers in what was expected to be a massive operation that would end with those suspected to be on the wrong side of the law in police vans. It however, turned out to be a friendly visit with law agencies talking nicely with suspected criminals and issuing them with written warnings and fines.
But law enforcement in Jules Street proved to be a problem as some of the serial offenders and showed no inclination to pay the fines imposed by the authorities. Some of the car dealers founding to be wanting in terms of the law close down in the presence of officials, only to open for business as soon as the raiding party has left.
Signs of a raid without a sting showed when a visibly nervous female employee asked the police during a briefing parade before the start of the operation for police protection. She wanted to know about the arrangement because experience their previous visit to Jules street, they were harassed and she the operators of illegal dealerships followed them to their vehicles wanting to know what they wanted there.
“Some of the dealerships, if you can call that dealerships, look like a syndicate. You close them here today, they open elsewhere.”
A total of 10 fines valued at R2 500 each and eight written warnings were issued to the street’s operators for being in contravention of the Second-hand Goods Act, which stipulates that consumers must buy goods that are durable and fit for purpose it was bought for. In this case, buyers of pre-owned vehicles must buy vehicles in a condition that they can used without experiencing problems just after purchasing them.
Sanele Mthuli, director at GDED’s Gauteng Consumer Affairs, admitted that to have seen what she described as flouting of the law, but could not immediately hold those violating the law to account because of processes that need to be followed.
“Some of the dealerships, if you can call that dealerships, look like a syndicate. You close them here today, they open elsewhere,” Mthuli said.
She explained a process from her office in the province to the National Consumer Affairs office before taking matters to the consumer court.
“We first need to issue warnings, fine them and escalate it to the National Consumer office to say this is what we have found. However, it becomes difficult sometimes because some of the businesses are not registered, do not have company names, no paperwork and cannot even search under CIPC. When you ask them where do they get the cars, they say from insurance companies, saying they are buying written-off cars, but they cannot give you proof of that. Written-off cars should be sold as scrap,” Mthuli said.
During the raid, it transpired that some of the businesses, such as Cash 4 Scrap Macmetals and Semug Motor Spares, appeared to operate in the guise of selling motor vehicle spare parts when they actually sell cars.
The owner of Mostaf’s Motors appeared to be a serial offender. In an interaction with the officials, the owner, who could not give Weekly SA Mirror his name, had been visited by law enforcement six months ago and told to comply, but did not do. He had been visited again last week and told to come to Jeppe police station to sort out his business registration documents, which he still had not done, but promised he would do.
It also transpired that some had two trading names in one invoice book. Some were flagrantly flouted health and safety regulations, such as Cash 4 Scrap, which had an unbearable stench coming from the toilets. The workers there said they did not have water. There was also no compliance with Covid 19 regulations as many of the workers did not wear masks and the businesses had no hand sanitizers on the premises.
Mthuli concurred with suspicions by Weekly SA Mirror team that some of the vehicles sold appeared to be either stolen or hijacked.
“That is my view,” she said.
Police had promised to come back to us with their consolidated statistics from the raid. Numerous attempts to get back to them were unsuccessful as they did not answer our calls after promising to do so earlier.
Laws flouted at Jules Street
• They operate without registration as required in terms of respect of Second-Hand Goods Act of 2009
• Some operate with expired certificates·, the duration of the certificate is five years and must be renewed after expiration.
• They do not keep a “register or record book” which lists the stock of vehicles in their premises.
• They have cars that are not recorded in their register book.
• They do not keep records of people selling cars to them, they claim they have cars written off by insurance companies.
• They don’t issue warranties as required in terms of the Consumer Protection Act of 2009.
• Their receipts still carry the old “voetstoots” clause meaning consumers buy cars as is in contravention of CPA
• They have no refund, no exchange and no return clause on their receipts, in contravention of CPA
• Consumers are issued receipts, no contracts are signed.
• They are in breach of the Occupational Health Act. The employer must provide a work environment that is safe and without risk to the health of the employees.
• They do not observe COVID-19 regulations in that a risk assessment is not conducted. (People were not sanitized and most did not wear masks). and they were fined
• Some do not pay tax in contravention of the Tax laws.
