LOCAL COMMERCIAL BANKS, SA CAR DEALERS COLLUSION EXPOSED

MBABANE – The local banks could soon find themselves investigated by the competition watchdog on allegations of collusion with South African car dealerships.

Times SUNDAY investigations have unearthed that some local banks are allegedly having agreements with some South African car dealerships, wherein the latter pays an undisclosed amount of money to some Swazi banks so that they (banks) could advise Swazi customers to purchase cars from South Africa to the detriment of local car dealerships. 

After several visits to some of the banks, a team from the Times SUNDAY who posed as customers that wanted to purchase cars were told that it was better to buy cars from South African dealerships than from locals.
Upon learning the malpractice perpetrated by some of the banks, reporters from this publication further visited various local car dealerships to ascertain if the country was being dodged millions from the said activity.
However, most of the managers from the car businesses pleaded with this publication not to reveal their identity because they feared that the exposé could ruin their working relationship with the local financial institutions.

“Thank you for giving us the opportunity to respond to this very sensitive matter. Yes, we have fallen victim of this syndicate. Though I would not like to mention any name, some of our clients have admitted to being coerced to buy across the border. We became aware that some of these vehicles were purchased from South African dealers when we to offer service and also take care of warranty issues. In our case, I wouldn’t say it’s the banks per se, but there is growing concern pointing to the fact that relationships with South African dealer employees have taken advantage of the laxity in controls at the initial point of client interaction due to the abuse of the mutual trust that the institutions and Swaziland dealers have,’’ a dealer principal from one of the local car dealerships told the Times SUNDAY.

The manager went on to say that in most cases the clients that are in the process coerced by the banks had initially been referred to the banks by the Swazi dealers.
“From where I stand, it would be wrong of me to accuse the banks as lending institutions, because we do have a healthy working relationship with all of the banks, but at the same time, I would be failing to comment responsibly if I said there was nothing going on between certain individuals within these institutions and the South African car dealers,” continued the dealer principal.

The visibly worried  dealer principal said the investigation coincided with a very recent scenario where they found South African dealers’ literature, advertising their services and offering incentives, scattered at the point of first contact - which is the area a client will normally first step into when looking for finance such as the reception area or over the vehicle loan officer’s desk.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: