The threat that online shopping could pose to public safety has once again come under the spotlight after the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) last week warned against unregulated goods. The statement issued by the authority warns consumers of the risk associated with products that are sold online without going through the necessary pre-approval process to determine their compliance with safety requirements. It’s not the first time that the NRCS has called on importers to obtain Letters of Authority (LOAs) – the document issued to traders once goods have passed muster with the necessary NRCS verification. Unfortunately South Africa’s market appears to have been flooded with illicit goods, many of them conveniently distributed via e-commerce websites that are easily designed and launched through DIY web-building platforms like Wix and Wordpress. Because of the free availability of cyber goods, the NRCS appears to have embarked on a drive to warn the public against buying potentially hazardous goods online. It reiterates that importers and manufacturers are by law required to apply for LOAs which, if not issued for whatever reason, prevents goods from being distributed for public use within the borders of South Africa. “An applicant is required to submit a sample of a product and a full test report must be acquired from an accredited testing facility for examination, testing or analysing to determine compliance with the necessary compulsory specifications that are in place,” says the NRCS. The body stresses that “electrical and automotive products top the list of products that are sold online and that have been found to be non-compliant”
It is exactly in the automotive category, and more specifically in respect of unregulated baby and toddler car seats illegally brought into the country and sold online, that the child road safety organisation, Wheel Well, has taken issue with the NRCS. Earlier this year Wheel Well publicly lambasted the authority for not fulfilling its primary function – properly policing public safety. The NGO also successfully proved that there had been several instances where safety seats were not only available online but had clearly not been issued with LOAs as they weren’t appearing on the NRCS’s database of homologation – the regulatory term used to denote that the necessary approval procedures have been successfully passed. One of these seats, interestingly branded “Wonder Woman” and unsurprisingly much cheaper than homologated peer products, remains available online despite the NRCS knowing about its availability. A website that gained notoriety for selling the seats, Happy Deals, and which operated from a lockup-and-go storage facility near China Town in Randburg, has since gone off-line. But Peggie Mars, MD of Wheel Well, has directed FTW to another website, also bearing all the hallmarks of being a DIY site, where Wonder Woman seats are still available. She says the problem is that “in many instances these seats have still not been recalled. “It’s also not enough for the NRCS to simply warn the public against these items. They need to take charge and make sure that these seats are not allowed into the country in the first place.
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It’s worrying that there seem to be so many illicit goods sitting in warehouses across the country. – Peggie Mars