The South African Motor Body Repairers’ Association (Sambra) has appointed Jacques Viljoen as its new National Director.
Sambra is the national body looking after the needs of almost 1 000 motor body repair businesses across South Africa, and its members repair over 80% of all insured repair claims in the country.
As a qualified attorney and labour practitioner, Jacques is no stranger to the Retail Motor Industry Organisation, having first joined the RMI in 2016 as an Industrial Relations Specialist. In 2019, he was appointed Regional Manager of the Free State & Northern Cape Region.
In 2021, he took over the reins as Labour Director and Company Secretary Designate responsible for keeping an eye on all Mibco-related affairs. Mibco is a Bargaining Council whose mission is to create and maintain industrial peace and stability in the Motor Industry.
He was also the chief negotiator for centralised collective bargaining during 2022/2023. As company secretary, his responsibilities related to the internal administrative and governance functions in conjunction with the RMI Board, RMI Presidents’ Committee and RMI Executive Committee.
High on his agenda will be to continue with the progress Sambra has made regarding the publication and implementation of the VIN numbers of all written-off vehicles in a write-off register available to any member of the public wishing to research the purchase of a used vehicle.
Over the last four years, Sambra has applied substantial resources to ensure that members of the public, used car dealers, banks and others involved in the purchase and sale of used vehicles can protect themselves against the purchase of a previously written-off vehicle.
Equally, with the Sambra exco, he will be tackling several initiatives focused on pushing back against unfair business practices as well as rolling out several initiatives to enhance member profitability and provide members with the tools to remain sustainable in the current business climate.
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