It was reported recently that bikers had protested outside
Parliament about proposed measures which would have the effect of
making life very difficult for those businesses who are involved in
the parallel importation of motorbikes. The report did not
make it clear exactly what the proposed measures comprised, but it
did suggest that they involved special testing of bikes
that are brought into the country by parallel importers, together
with some system of issuing certificates for such bikes.
Measures that, the report suggested, would not only require
parallel importers to raise their prices, but might even put them
out of business altogether, leaving authorised suppliers as the
only source of motorbikes in the future. Amongst the protesters
were the Parallel Importer of Motorcycles Traders Association of SA
and Cosatu, which said that it was worried about job losses.
