Millions more spent on licence fees for idle cars

auctioneer to sell the cars because Bhisho wants too much for them.

To make matters worse, each car has to be licensed every year while gathering dust at the garages, while the garages have run out of space to accommodate more cars.

A Saturday Dispatch investigation found that the department spent millions on licence fees every year.

The cars are part of the province’s fleet which are decommissioned when vehicles reach a certain mileage – normally 150 000km for sedans and 180 000km for bakkies. Emergency vehicles are sold at 300 000km on the clock.

Most cars at the East London depot are sedans bought through Fleet Africa, a company that last had dealings with the department in January 2012.

A source based at the transport department, with intimate knowledge of the current fleet problems, said the reason for the delay in selling the vehicles was the reserve price set for auctioned vehicles.

“These vehicles are not being sold as we would like because the bidders are not happy with the high prices. Also, the delay in this is poor planning on disposing of old vehicles,” said the source.

The source further said it was impacting on their departmental budget as they had to license all the vehicles in all the three garages in Port Elizabeth, East London and Mthatha.

“Yearly we have to license each vehicle and we lose roughly between R5-million and R8-million on licensing,” said the source.

Last year there were two auctions in March and December which according to the source sold fewer than 100 vehicles from all three depots.

This year not a single auction has taken place.

“This month (August) there was supposed to be one auction but nothing happened.”

Apparently there are more than 1 000 vehicles waiting to be auctioned.

On average each vehicle is auctioned for between R40 000 and R50 000. The vehicles range from small cars to high-end sedans and SUVs like Mercedes-Benz MLs.

The cars could end up being scrapped as they lose value and deteriorate due to rust or other damage.

When the Dispatch visited the state garage in West Bank, East London, four ML63 Mercedes Benz SUV’s – one previously assigned to the Mpondo King Ndamase Ndamase and another to the premier of the province Phumulo Masualle – lay at the entrance of the garage.

The garage has three levels, with each level able to accommodate 300 vehicles. The cars outside have the most damage after exposure to the weather.

The department of transport leases vehicles to the other departments for a period of four years or until