NRCS under fire over unregulated baby seats

Bargain hunting for cheap alternatives to expensive car seat accessories for infants and minors could lead unsuspecting parents to buy unregulated products sold via e-commerce portals and Facebook, watch dog organisation for child road safety, Wheel Well, has warned. More importantly, the NGO’s managing director, Peggie Mars, recently chose a public forum to accuse the National Regulator of Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) of dereliction of duty in not removing alleged illegal baby and child seats from South Africa’s market. During a Q&A session that followed a recent presentation by NRCS CEO Edward Mamadise at the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mars said it had been known for several years by authorities tasked with policing the regulatory landscape that certain brands were not only hazardous to child safety but possibly lethal. Whereas Mamadise focused on gaining support for the regulator during his speech, Mars struck a nerve with her comments and inquiries when she asked “how can we move forward and build trust that the products on the market are indeed correctly certified when you seem to do nothing about car seats that are not homologated (approved)?” When Mars later spoke to FTW she said that Wheel Well had in its possession
an email from the general manager of the automotive division at the NRCS, Duncan Mutengwe, which confirmed that one of the brands Wheel Well had warned against for some time, did not appear on the regulator’s database for homologated child restraints. Moreover, the brand in question appears to be selling well because it’s marketed using the appeal of a super hero – and compared to regulated brands such as Chicco and Bambino, sold for significantly less. In addition, this particular seat is apparently manufactured to last for the duration of a child’s early years. “For x amount of rand you can get a car seat that you can use from nine to 36 kilograms. For parents who are poor this is the answer to their problems. But because the seat has not been homologated we don’t know it’s safe or legal.” In two other instances it was found that seats sold via a local portal called Happy Deals, also originating in China, had been marked down from R1600 to R829. “It’s absolute nonsense,” said Mars. “Not only are these seats illegal but you can have a look on eBay right now and you’ll find that they’re sold for around R350 to R450. So the supposed bargain in buying these seats is absolute bogus.” Also, Mars claims that
these seats are sold without the necessary Letters of Authority, mandatory documents required to sell imported goods on the South African market. “It begs the question: why have a regulator such as the NRCS if they’re not going to police their own specifications – not to mention that under the Road Traffic Act it’s illegal to use seats that are not homologated.” In fairness to the NRCS, Mars indicated that some seats were new on the market and it took some time for the regulator to homologate the seats and update its database. However, when seats remain off the list for longer than a year, and the list was last updated on January 15, “something is clearly wrong. “Since at least 2014 we have been alerting the NRCS to brands that are being sold without the proper certification in place, but nothing gets done. They are still being sold.” At the time of going to press FTW was still
waiting for comment from the NRCS, particularly about information Mars shared about the regulator’s awareness that it was not acting against seats contravening compulsory specifications. However, Mamadise told attendees at the JCCI presentation that the regulator was looking into the matter but could not share what it had found so far with the public, including Wheel Well. He said the “danger in sharing sensitive information with the public is that some companies want to run out competitors because their motives are to close them out”. In the meantime all Mars and her colleagues at Wheel Well can do is to warn parents to make sure that seats contain a red sticker with Economic Commission of Europe verification numbers, commonly referred to as ECE numbers, or preferably not to buy child seats online. Attempts to reach Happy Deals for comment were unsuccessful.