SA auto industry launches drive to replace 1.7m defective airbags

South Africa’s automotive industry has launched a year-long campaign to inspect and, where necessary, replace about 1.7 million defective and potentially lethal airbags in vehicles still on the country’s roads.

Tshetlhe Litheko, the chief policy officer at automotive business council Naamsa, confirmed on Wednesday the launch of an industry-funded campaign from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027.

Its aim is to reach vehicle owners who have not responded to previous recall campaigns.

Listen/read: National Consumer Commission probes delays in vehicle recalls

Litheko said this initiative will be undertaken in collaboration with the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and the National Consumer Commission.

Naamsa has also partnered with the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI) to carry out repairs in areas where original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) do not have dealership networks.

“There [has been] a positive reaction from industry to … draw a line in the sand and say we are now going to do it together, and they are putting their money where their mouth is as well,” he said.

Airbag recall campaign 

BMW Group SA general manager for customer support Rob Gearing on Wednesday referred to the problems the company has faced in trying to replace these airbags during a tour and briefing on BMW’s R260 million regional distribution centre in Midrand, prompting Moneyweb to approach Naamsa for further details.

Gearing confirmed that BMW SA will be rolling out another airbag recall campaign in about the next two weeks.

OEMs worldwide, including those in South Africa, have been running recall campaigns to inspect and replace faulty airbags that were supplied by Japan-based Takata Corporation, which has gone into liquidation.

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The airbags were installed in millions of vehicles worldwide, with recall programmes launched around 2013 after a number of deaths and injuries caused by these airbags exploding and shards of metal hitting the driver and front-seat passenger in the chest and face.

Recall participation below 50%

Litheko said the South Africa industry started with about 2.7 million vehicles that needed to be inspected but were able to reach less than 50% of the affected owners.

Naamsa is hoping to get 300 000 of the 1.7 million affected vehicles during the campaign and replace the airbags where necessary.

The campaign will include community outreach initiatives, major public awareness drives over the December holidays, as well as vehicle identification number (VIN) checks to identify affected vehicles before contacting their owners.

‘Rewards’ to boost owner response

Litheko said they are also considering “rewards” to be a “magnet” to encourage owners of a particular models and age groups of vehicles to bring their cars in for inspection.

“We’re looking into things like grocery vouchers or a full tank of petrol as rewards,” he said. He added that the aim is to increase participation rates among owners of affected vehicles.

Litheko cited a previous recall by one OEM involving safety issues with the braking system, where owners were informed the fault could kill them, yet only around 5% of customers responded and brought their vehicles in for repair.

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He said another planned intervention would create entry-level job opportunities for some, involving people physically checking parking lots and used-car dealership to try and locate affected vehicles.

The campaign will also be used to help eNatis – the Electronic National Administration Traffic Information System – to clean its own database, which is unreliable in that it is not always possible to connect current vehicle owners to the VIN numbers on the list of affected vehicles.

“You call someone and they say they sold that car four, five or six years ago,” he said.

Litheko said OEMs are aware of the last registered geographic areas of affected vehicles and how many are in each area. As a result, community-based interventions will be rolled out in those regions.

BMW Group SA general manager for customer support Rob Gearing. Image: Supplied

Gearing said BMW SA has fixed the airbags in about 50 000 vehicles but believes there are still about 90 000 potentially defective airbags on the list of cars that are still registered. The company is actively trying to contact owners to bring the cars in in order to get the airbags checked or replaced if necessary.

He said the company approached the RTMC to help identify affected customers, but the regulator could not provide contact details due to the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia).

Gearing added that the group has supplied the RTMC with a list of VINs for affected vehicles, and SMS messages were subsequently sent to owners on behalf of BMW, urging them to contact dealers and have their vehicles checked.

BMW ramps up recall capacity

He said BMW SA’s dealers have been inspecting and replacing the airbags of between 6 000 and 10 000 vehicles a year for the past few years.

“We would like to be doing 4 000 a month, and we’ve geared ourselves to be able to do 4 000 a month to try and get rid of the backlog as quickly as possible.

“We think that is realistic. If we could get the customers in quicker, we would be able to supply the airbags faster to be able to do the recalls,” he said.

Gearing confirmed that BMW SA currently has 8 000 airbags in stock at its regional distribution centre, which is sufficient, but would automatically reorder if the stock dropped below critical levels.

BMW SA’s regional distribution centre was launched in 2018 together with project developer Attacq.

Located in the Waterfall precinct in Midrand, the 32 000m² facility serves as a central hub for storing and managing BMW, BMW Motorrad and Mini parts and supplies authorised retailers, supports after-sales operations, and contributes to quality assurance through controlled handling and tracking processes.

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Gearing said the facility holds stock worth R660 million at any given time, including 10 000 tyres valued at R30 million.

He said the centre achieves 94% parts availability, which means that only six parts out of every 100 requested are unavailable and must be ordered.

Gearing added that BMW SA considers this level of parts availability to be industry-leading.