Buyers of illegally imported vehicles whose cars were confiscated by police this week have appealed to ANC provincial boss Oscar Mabuyane to intervene on their behalf.
The party’s Eastern Cape chair, who is also the MEC of finance, economic development and environmental affairs (Dedeat), was contacted earlier this week by a representative of the group, confirmed Mabuyane’s chief of staff Baphelele Mhlaba on Thursday.
Mhlaba said: “We are making follow-ups now on the consumer protection side because we have established that they may have fallen prey to an online vehicle scam.
“So Dedeat is still looking at the matter as mandated by the MEC.
“Yes, on Tuesday we received a call from a Soso Dimaza representing the group,” he said.
“They requested political intervention from what they called the impounding of their vehicles by non-uniformed people.
“We advised them to go the nearest police station and open a case because they seemed to know that their vehicles were stored at SAPS Mxenge (compound). Later we followed up with the provincial police commissioner, who confirmed that the impounding was part of a national project to collect all those vehicles as they were not authorised to be on South African roads,” Mhlaba said.
This comes after hundreds of illegally imported vehicles were confiscated by police this week.
The buyers had apparently fallen victim to a multimillion-rand scam. Some had been duped of their life savings.
The Dispatch was told hundreds of illegally imported cars had been sold at “reasonable prices” after pouring through the Durban and Port Elizabeth ports.
A sting operation by the police’s organised crime unit has now confiscated most of the cars.
Yesterday, the angry buyers met at the Bhisho stadium to plan a way forward, including roping in an East London law firm. The group told the Dispatch they had contacted Mabuyane after not receiving any assistance from provincial police.
“We are now busy compiling a list of demands that we are going to hand over to the provincial ANC and to our legal representative in East London,” said the group.
Transport spokesperson Khuselwa Rantjie said: “Motorists are advised to follow the process to its finality as failure to do so may get one in trouble with the authorities.
“The entire process takes a minimum of 21 days to be completed – that is, if no challenges were experienced in the process.”..