600 ‘DUBAI’ DEALERSHIPS JOBS AT RISK

MANZINI – The unfolding volatile waves of economic uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic may result in the retrenchments of about 600 employees.

These retrenchments will be from the local import car dealership industry. This is because a number of the dealership proprietors said the emergence of the pandemic set international markets into turmoil as the value of major currencies appreciated which in turn made it difficult for them to import vehicles into the country. The import vehicles sold in the kingdom are mostly sourced from Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom. Local industry players estimated that there were about 80 registered second-hand import vehicle dealerships in the country. These dealerships are said to directly employ about 800 people while indirectly there are over 1 500 people benefitting through panel beating and other jobs.

Average

Since mid-February 2020, the history of the local currency (SZL) compared to the United States of America Dollar (US$) in the past period of 180 days from Friday, February 21, 2020 to Monday, August 17, 2020 reflected an average of E17.33. This is according to information sourced from exchangerates.org.uk. Exchange Rates UK is a site devoted to bringing the latest currency news, historical data, currency conversion and exchange rates, using mid-market rates updated minutely. The website further stated that the highest exchange rate recorded was on April 23, 2020, where the Dollar was at E19.08 to the Lilangeni while the lowest recorded rate was on February 22, 2020 as the local currency was E15.07 against the Dollar. Given the obscure exchange rate, Abudalid Bukhari from Cars from Japan dealership, which is based in Manzini and Matsapha, said the exchange rate was posing a challenge for their businesses.

Performing

He said this was because the local currency was not performing well, which meant that for every shipment into the country, they had to pay more. He said this was not sustainable given that the economy had not been performing well such that about 19 000 people had lost their source of income since March through unpaid layoffs. “We have about 800 people who are permanently employed and in recent months, we’ve had nothing to offer them. There is no business and people are not buying,” Bukhari said.

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