Pretoria - Tyre manufacturers have suspended the payment of statutory levies to the SA Bureau of Standards (SABS) until the bureau "demonstrates its ability to deliver service to the industry and consumers".
Etienne Human, the executive director of the SA Tyre Manufacturers Conference, which represents four local tyre manufacturers, confirmed Bridgestone-Firestone, Continental Dunlop and Goodyear had paid their levies up to 2001 but were holding them back for 2002.
A number of motor manufactures approached also confirmed a deterioration in the level and quality of service delivered by the SABS to the automotive industry.
Human said the levy went to the SABS to cover the cost of testing but the manufacturers had taken the decision to withhold funding for three reasons. The SABS did not have a testing laboratory for tyres; promises made of the creation of an electronic database for the homologation of tyres had not been kept; and a system had not been put in place by the SABS to check that imported tyres complied with compulsory specifications.
Human said it was "unbelievable" the SABS did not have its own testing laboratory for tyres, especially since tyres had been manufactured in South Africa since 1935.
"They used to use the testing facilities of manufacturers but this was not a satisfactory state of affairs because they were testing imported brands using the facilities of local competitors.
"It's also a safety issue. South Africa has to comply with international standards because tyres are exported as well. What image are we creating in the market?"
There was also a loophole in the system in regard to tyre imports because the SABS had not instituted a system that could assist customs in determining whether these imports had been homologated or not.
The SABS homologation process indicates whether a product, such as tyres or a vehicle, conform with compulsory specifications.
Kenny Mathiha, the head of corporate and media relations at the SABS, said SABS chief executive Eugene Julies was unaware of the suspension of the payments of the levy and would only be able to respond today when he had "all the facts on the table".
During the past two years the tyre manufacturers had written letters to Julies and had gone to see Alistair Ruiters, the director-general of the department of trade and industry, but that had also not solved the problem.