An illegal vehicle never becomes legal
Jakkie Olivier, CEO of RMI says vehicles are being dumped in South Africa and sold illegally.
NO matter how long you keep an illegal vehicle in your possession it never becomes legal, says Lee Dutton, executive director, International Vehicle Identification Desk (IVID) Southern Africa.
Dutton and the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI) are urging citizens not to even consider buying an illegal vehicle. Their announcement comes following a recent article issued by Business Against Crime stating that all illegally imported vehicles are seized by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and are destroyed (compacted) by government.
“While some people who have bought an illegal vehicle try to register the vehicle as ‘built-up’ locally, their origins are invariably discovered over time and the vehicle seized. At some point in time, in a road block or when given attention by the authorities for any reason, the owner will be asked to produce proof of the vehicle’s legitimacy. If it is foreign registered it may only remain in South Africa for a maximum of three months per annum, passports and proof of residence in the foreign state can be requested, likewise temporary import permits (TIPs),” said Dutton.
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Jakkie Olivier, CEO of RMI, says it is a complicated issue but ultimately the banning of imported vehicles into South Africa was done to protect local manufacturers. “We have seen cases in other countries where the import of foreign vehicles has decimated the local market, ” he said.
He says often vehicles are brought into the country under the guise that they are only in transit heading onwards to another country. “But really they are being dumped in South Africa and sold illegally. There is also a cloning practice where the identity of a legitimate scrapped vehicle is stolen and used for a matching imported vehicle. We often see this with a specific model which has a direct impact on that model in the local market.”
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