WEDNESDAY, 10.00AM
TRADE and Industry Minister Alec Erwin has given Hyundai Motor Company’s Botswana assembly plant 48 months to comply with local content regulations or face tough action. Erwin said action would be taken, even though it would likely cause “a major clash between the SA and Botswana governments”.
“In the short term, certain actions will be implemented by the SA authorities to address the unacceptable delays by Botswana authorities in implementing certain mutually agreed steps to deal with the [semi-knocked-down motor assembly] activities in that country,” Erwin told a meeting of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA recently.
Hyundai Motor Distributors, the SA marketers and distributors of Hyundais assembled in Botswana, is currently defending a court action by the commissioner for inland revenue, who is trying to attach all Hyundai vehicles in SA until the company can provide satisfactory proof of payment of duties on vehicles imported to SA between January 1 last year and May 15 this year.
Hyundai has confirmed that its new R25-million completely knocked down assembly plant in Gaborone is on schedule to begin production next January.