New vehicles in transit legislation postponed

Adding unacceptable additional costs for legitimate operators ALAN PEAT NEW LEGISLATION which, from July 1, was to ban the issuing of temporary registration permits for vehicles in transit has been delayed by court action until September 6. Effectively this ban was designed by the department of transport (DoT) so that imported vehicles moving through SA on their way to overborder destinations would no longer be able to be driven as they transited this country. The move, according to Tim Driman, head of the Durban-based TLD group, was because this concession was being abused and blatantly used to import used vehicles into SA under the pretence that they were going to an overborder destination. It had all been caused by a dispensation by conflicting groups of authorities – a goodwill gesture that had gone sour. A DoT policy document signed by John Motsatsing on behalf of the director general of transport explained how the authorities viewed the issue. The crux of the matter, the document stated, was that special permits “may only be issued to motor vehicles that are intended to be registered and licensed in the Republic”. “Accordingly,” said the DG, “it is quite clear that both the temporary or special permits were not intended to be issued to motor vehicles traversing the Republic.” The problem was that unscrupulous operators went through the process of having vehicle tests completed and the temporary licensing permits issued for the supposed transit procedure – but then a day later returned to the licensing office with the irrelevant documents (the bill of entry, for example) concealed in their hip pockets, slapped the COF and temporary licence on the counter, and had the vehicle SA-registered. It was now an illegal import, but fully registered to go about on the SA roads. The size of the problem has not been assessed, but a fairly large number of vehicles are smuggled into SA in this fashion each year. At any one time, FTW was told, about 5 000 transit import vehicles (about 95% of which are cars) are sitting in bonded warehouses and the like in Durban – and some of these are destined to be illegal imports to SA. However, there is a contrary side to the new regulations, and this will seriously hit the honest practitioners in the vehicle movement industry, according to Sathie Moodley, MD of Speedway Freight. Obviously, the demand for these vehicles to be now carried on trucks across SA and over the border to their true export destination will severely curtail the business conducted by these driver/delivery operations, and it will also add unacceptable cost for the legitimate overborder buyers of second-hand vehicles. “We are very concerned about this situation,” said Moodley, “in that it will cost about ten times more moving these vehicles by road transport.” He feels that this is rather contrary to the SA government’s support of the principles of Nepad, and its expressed desire to help the poorer overborder states by restraining the SA portion of their costs. Moodley is adamant that throwing legislation at the problem is no solution. “They should police the problem, not just implement new regulations,” he told FTW. Other reputable members of the vehicle movement fraternity felt the same way, and raised a court action to prevent the July 1 introduction of the new rules. The result, Moodley confirmed, was that the court granted an interdict, and placed a moratorium on the introduction of the legislation until September 6. This is effectively ordering the authorities to justify the introduction of the new regulations, and gives driver/delivery operations breathing space to gather their arms against them.