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WOZA 16-SEATER: Toyota is assembling its Quantum Ses'fikile vehicles in SA.

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Two national organisations representing the industry - the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) and National Taxi Alliance (NTA) - yesterday called for the full manufacturing process to take place in South Africa, which they hoped would reduce the price of the vehicles.

Toyota South Africa announced on Friday it had begun to assemble the Ses'fikile vehicles at its Durban plant. The company said it aimed to produce about 15 000 Ses'fikile units to the southern African market annually in its second phase. About 10 000 units were targeted for the first phase.

Santaco general secretary Philip Taaibosch and his NTA counterpart Alpheus Mlalazi said the assembling of vehicles locally was a good move and was proof the country had the skills to manufacture the vehicles.

Mlalazi said: "You must remember the Hi-Ace used to be produced here. The manufacturing of Quantums and Ses'fikile locally will reduce the price because it would do away with the shipping costs."

Taaibosch said the introduction of a 16-seater was an advantage for the industry compared to the 15-seaters produced in Japan.

The new 16-seater kombi will cost about R285000.

"Reducing the capacity to 15 passengers hit us hard. We have been calling for the additional seat to be included," Taaibosch said.

The organisations and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), which has members in the vehicle-manufacturing sector, described the move as a positive step since President Jacob Zuma called for job creation.

Numsa's general secretary Irvin Jim said the trade union expected other government projects, which include the roll-out of bus rapid transit systems, to learn a lesson from the taxi industry's bold move.

He said only countries that prioritised manufacturing had survived the global economic crisis.

Toyota spokesman Leo Kok said: "We have started with Ses'fikile because it is the most selling vehicle. We will see how it goes, but we share the same wish with the taxi industry and unions to manufacture locally."- xabav@sowetan.co.za

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Fri May 24 21:18:04 SAST 2013 ::

Jul 10, 2012

AFRICANT

I have seen these..it is a scary vehicle if it comes looming up in the rearview mirror with a maniacal taxi driver barreling down towards you. Maybe we do need smaller taxis- less people to get hurt if something goes wrong i reckon.
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Jul 10, 2012

MAFILIKI

That will be a good start. Why do other countries like the USA, Japan, China, Australia, Switzerland, Europe and Germany built their own cars and we don't? We do have the skills to do this, maybe goverment is prohibiting this as they make more money with the imports. Also, car prises will drop sygnificantly if this happens.
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Jul 10, 2012

CYBORICO

Wonder how many saftey standards will be ignored, the taxis will be the same price as the ones we asseble here but will cost less than half and loose 80% of the saftey requirements needed in a public transport vehicle, bad idea.
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Jul 10, 2012

CYBORICO

MAFILIKI
That will be a good start. Why do other countries like the USA, Japan, China, Australia, Switzerland, Europe and Germany built their own cars and we don't? We do have the skills to do this, maybe goverment is prohibiting this as they make more money with the imports. Also, car prises will drop sygnificantly if this happens.

your local companies fail to build a RDP that lasts and the damn thing never moves, so u think we can do good in the moving parts type of business? The people u mentioning understand and know what the ISO standards stand for, South africans are just after a quck buck and it will not work, just imagine driving on the N12 and suddenly the bonnet of the car infront comes whosshing past your car because of compromised joints/welds? it can be an everyday thing believe me, what about overtaking a wheel who's car has long left the road?
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Jul 10, 2012

Tsar-Rasputin

I thought they were phasing out taxis for BRT, why still producing them?
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Jul 11, 2012

David-

It all boils down to cost, producing the vehicle in SA will not magically make the price go down, we produce a large number of vehicles locally yet the cars are still expensive.

A very good example was the VW Citi golf, it was locally manufactured, it had relatively simple components that were locally sourced and the line had been running for years, yet the price was still around R80K

With regards to standards you don’t have to worry, your multinational car manufacturers have extremely high safety standards that they will not compromise.

It would actually be cheaper to import cars into SA, but they government has set import tariffs to protect the manufactures in SA and the workforce.

As for setting up a new South African car manufacturing company, it will never happen, as it would not be able to compete

Maybe china will set up some new car plants in SA to produce cheaper vehicles

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