Throughout 2025, the National Consumer Commissioner (NCC) recorded recalls affecting more than 50,000 vehicles across several major automotive brands. The scale of these recalls reveals a systemic failure and weakness in vehicle pre-market quality assurance, manufacturing oversight and regulatory verification.
Although vehicle recalls currently serve an essential role in addressing latent safety defects, they are inherently reactive in their nature and therefore inadequate as a safeguard. What this system has proved is that recall notices often arrive too late, when defective vehicles are already in circulation, driven by unsuspecting motorists.
Each recall represents a failure of early detection and oversight, signalling that quality assurance arrived too late. Instead of preventing danger, the recall system responds to it, exposing drivers, passengers and pedestrians alike to avoidable risks.
What is apparent is South Africa’s increasing pattern of vehicle recalls across multiple manufacturers and models, which exposes deep systemic weaknesses in pre-market testing, production oversight and regulatory verification. These recurring incidents point to gaps in the country’s vehicle safety framework.
In May 2025, the NCC issued 4 recall-related notices citing defects that included passenger airbag inflators prone to rupture during deployment in vehicles sold between 2014 to 2016, seat-belt latch plates with inadequate retention hardness or protective effect and high-voltage battery systems susceptible to overheating and acute fire hazards, all of which significantly elevate the risk of injury or death.
The recalls in that period were not confined to passenger vehicles; several motorcycles were also recalled for critical engine and drive-gear faults, further highlighting the breadth of mobility and road safety, affecting the national vehicle fleet.
THE RECALL MODEL: REACTIVE, FRAGMENTED AND FAILING
While vehicle recalls are meant to correct safety failures, the existing recall framework in South Africa exposes its structural weaknesses, fragmentation and inefficiency in safeguarding motorists and road users.
- Delayed Detection – Safety faults often surface years after vehicles have been sold, across successive model years. This lag in detection means defects continue to endanger lives long after vehicles enter the market.
- Consumer Burden – The onus for acting on recall notices often rests on the consumer to monitor the notices. Many motorists remain unaware or uninformed of these faults, leaving known defects unresolved and the risk unmitigated. Likewise, consumers should not have to actively engage or contact the OEM to determine the status of their vehicle.
- Limited Regulator Role – The NCC plays a coordinating role in issuing recall notices but does not conduct any tests or pre-market certification of all vehicles before market release. This makes oversight partial and places overreliance on manufacturer self-reporting to identify and disclose faults.
The AA equally recognises the difficulty Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) face in reaching owners of affected vehicles, resulting from fragmented ownership and contact records, common when vehicles have changed hands.
OVER-RELIANCE ON MANUFACTURER-PROVIDED INFORMATION
The shortcomings of the recall model are further compounded by the absence of an independent automotive testing authority in the country, to assess or test vehicle safety before market release. Without such a body, the system is depended heavily on OEMs to identify, investigate and disclose faults.
The role of regulatory oversight relies in part on the Motor Industry Ombudsman of South Africa (MIOSA) which provides technical support to the NCC once a recall is initiated, according to NCC Executive Head, Ms Prudence Moilwa. However, MIOSA itself operates with a small technical team, largely drawn from within the automotive industry itself. These professionals are often associated or linked to suppliers, manufacturers or service providers, when what is required is an independent testing specialist.
This arrangement, while it may appear well-intentioned, undermines and compromises impartiality and limits the ability to ensure proactive, timeous quality verification. It places safety assurance too far downstream, rather than at the point of market entry.
FROM RECALLS TO RESULTS: WHY PREVENTATIVE TESTING MUST LEAD SOUTH AFRICA
Given the systemic flaws and shortcomings of the recall-model, South Africa must shift from curative interventions towards preventative assurance. The AA with its historic advocacy role, has earned strong credentials in this space, through its collaboration with Global NCAP and the #SaferCarsForAfrica campaign launched in November 2017. Since then, the AA has presided over independent crash-testing of popular entry-level vehicles sold locally.
The tests results, available on the AA website, revealed that some models offer sub-standard protection compared to the same brands (and models) in other markets.
The results underscore the value of preventive inspections, crash-testing and model benchmarking. The AA’s involvement in these tests cement credibility for an independent safety advocate and oversight body.
While not currently the formal regulator, by advocating for mandatory independent crash-testing, star-ratings and pre-market certification, the AA offers a reliable pathway to elevate manufacturer accountability, raise quality-control standards, rebuild consumer trust and shift responsibility upstream.
DRIVING MEANINGFUL REFORM: TOWARDS A SAFER, MORE ACCOUNTABLE SYSTEM
To address and close the gap, tighter coordination is needed between the NCC, trade and industry bodies, and the AA to build a unified system for pre-market certification and post-sale monitoring. With its proven experience, backed by its advocacy, technical depth and long-standing partnership with Global NCAP, the AA is uniquely positioned to lead, guide and bridge the gap between motorists and the OEM in the event of a recall, serving as a trustworthy, independent coordinator of the flow of information between the two groups.
Car recalls have exposed deep fractures in South Africa’s vehicle safety framework. Each one a symptom of failed oversight and weak intervention. The message is clear: waiting for defects to surface post market reach, is neither efficient nor ethical. The future of South Africa’s road safety depends on prevention, empowered consumers and an independent, technically capable body to lead verified safety standards.
South Africa stands at a pivotal juncture. By institutionalising independent crash-testing and embedding accountability at market entry, the country can shift from a culture of mere compliance. With the AA guiding this shift, every car sold will uphold the principle of trust and safety.