AUTOMOTIVE original equipment manufacturers have been accused of plotting with their suppliers to shift production out of South Africa.
Irvin Jim, the general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), claimed that in addition to the Automotive Leather Company, Johnson Controls had also established a plant in Lesotho although it still had production facilities in South Africa.
The Lesotho Times reported in March that the Lesotho National Development Corporation had confirmed Johnson Controls would start manufacturing car seat covers at the closed Philips factory premises in Tikoe while another company it did not identify would start producing leather seat covers soon for BMW cars at Ha Nyenye in Maputsoe.
Jim said original equipment manufacturers and component suppliers were being unscrupulous and giving the country a raw deal because they received government incentives with taxpayers’ money via the Motor Industry Development Programme and its successor, the Automotive Production and Development Programme, while “of late” they were exerting pressure on suppliers to cut wages in half, failing which they would take business away.
He said the plants in Lesotho made inferior quality products.
He stressed that government support for the automotive industry had been on the basis that increased production would result in increased jobs.
Jim claimed the chief executives of some automotive companies were “dishonest” and had completely disregarded the fact that they should be championing localisation and the creation of jobs.
“This is something that Numsa will take up in the interests of the country. They [auto companies] are being selfish and milking the country and it’s driven by greed.”
Jim said Numsa had meetings scheduled with the motor industry bargaining council to address this issue.
Attempts to obtain comment from National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA president Johan van Zyl, who is also the chief executive of Toyota South Africa, were unsuccessful. – Roy Cokayne