The South African Institute of Auctioneers’ (SAIA) Transformation Committee is focussing on growing the industry through previously untapped markets in the country’s 532 townships where formal auction activity is almost non-existent despite huge buying potential.
The SAIA Transformation committee headed by Tsitso Setai wants to popularise auctions among previously disadvantaged communities where assets such as houses and vehicles are financed and some repossessed in townships every day. Yet auction opportunities arising from these communities are taken elsewhere.
“Repossessed vehicles leave Soweto for auction yards in distant towns while auctioneers could resell the cars locally and must travel many kilometres to bid. “This imbalance makes no commercial sense. When you have big auction houses in the country; why are they not opening a branch in Soweto? They have the technology and the infrastructure. We cannot leave it only to Lokshin Auctions, the first and only township-based auctioneer to carry this alone,” says Tsitso.
He says Lokshin Auctions has proven the demand exists but with limited resources does little to popularise auctioneering in the townships. It shows how tough the environment is without established support, limited infrastructure, no local auction yards.
“If we have a hundred auction houses and only two black auctioneers that does not reflect the demographics of South Africa. We need mentors to guide new entrants into the industry. We need to place learners from the townships in jobs with established auctioneers and train them, as without placements and practical training they cannot progress from qualification to entrepreneurship.
The SAIA Education Committee’s recent training drive produced positive numbers. Many auctioneers now hold NQF Level 4 qualifications, including candidates from the previously disadvantaged communities. When SAIA engaged Junior Chamber International (JCI), a youth organisation active across South Africa’s universities, they discovered that most young people simply have no visibility of auctions in the townships.
As a result the committee also wants to engage media platforms that township communities actually use including free-to-air broadcaster and local community media. As the Head of the SAIA Transformation committee, Tsitso wants to explore initiatives with these media to communicate with communities from how cattle auctions are marketed, to how auction houses source and sell goods in rural and township markets and more.
The SAIA transformation committee’s work promotes cooperation between existing auctioneers with township-based start-ups to grow the industry. True growth opportunities lie within easy reach where the majority of South Africans live. If auctioneers want new buyers, new sellers and long-term industry expansion townships are the place to grow.
