Cops seize illegal Landrovers worth R3m
Cape Town seized four new 2016 Land Rover Defenders in a crackdown onf a suspected illegal vehicle export syndicate.
|||Cape Town - Police on Thursday seized four brand-new 2016 Land Rover Defenders, worth an estimated total of R3 million, at a storage facility in Carlisle Road, Paarden Eiland, in a crackdown on what they suspect is an illegal vehicle export syndicate.
Norman Lamprecht, executive manager of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa), said on Friday that because the automotive industry was the largest manufacturing sector in South Africa’s economy, contributing 7.5 percent to its GDP last year alone, the illegal import and export of vehicles was eroding foreign investment and local employment.
Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said in a statement: “Fraudulent export documents were issued for the vehicles in Joburg while they were in storage in Cape Town.”
The vehicles were destined for Malaysia and the UK. The investigation is still under way.
Businesses and individuals can only import and export vehicles if they have been granted permission to do so by the South African Bureau of Standards (Sarbs) in a bid to protect the local manufacturing industry.
Lamprecht said that besides being the largest manufacturing sector in the country’s economy, the automobile industry had contributed 33.5 percent to South Africa’s manufacturing output.
He said that 150 000 people were employed in the vehicle and components manufacturing industry - which is expected to invest a record 7.6 billion in the industry this year - which made automotive crime a major issue that would affect businesses.
“All of these illegal activities harm investments and employments in the country. We are working very closely with authorities. We are aiming to double the vehicle production by 1 million per annum by 2020, from the current 615 658 last year,” Lamprecht said.
Western Cape Community Safety MEC Dan Plato said that criminal syndicates operating in the country were a major issue that financed the multibillion-rand criminal underworld.
“Some of the syndicates are local and some have international links like the Chinese, Bulgarian, Moroccan and Russian syndicates operating in the country.
“Police are aware of it and they are keeping a close eye.
“These syndicates are responsible for many international drugs, rhino horn, human trafficking and vehicle syndicates,” he said.
gadeeja.abbas@inl.co.za
Cape Argus