BMW South Africa Faces Shutdown Over ‘Exclusion Practices’

The Reyaga Community project has announced plans for a major shutdown of the industrial suburb of Rosslyn, taking direct aim at automotive giant BMW and the broader industry for what they call entrenched economic exclusion and practices that violate spatial justice.

The planned action, detailed in a comprehensive memorandum addressed to BMW and other major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), is backed by a list of urgent demands. These include radical procurement reform, enforceable hiring quotas for local residents, full transparency on supplier contracts and a fundamental overhaul of the industry’s transformation fund.

TechFinancials reached out to BMW for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

The memorandum, issued on behalf of “township entrepreneurs, unemployed youth and residents who refuse to be spectators to their own dispossession,” states that the community’s patience has been exhausted after decades of marginalisation despite proximity to one of South Africa’s premier industrial zones.

“The community is demanding structural reform, economic inclusion and accountability in Rosslyn,” the memo declares.

“BMW’s current practices violate both the spirit and letter of South African law.”

The document lays out a detailed case, arguing that despite operating in a township “historically excluded from industrial ownership,” BMW and others continue to uphold procurement, employment, and investment practices that perpetuate this exclusion.

Key demands from the Reyaga Community project include:

• Procurement Reform: Mandating that 40% of non-core services be sourced from township SMMEs by 2026, unbundling large contracts to allow smaller bidders, and publishing all supplier lists and contract values.

• Employment Equity: Implementing a 30% hiring quota for township residents in new positions and removing discriminatory recruitment filters, such as requirements for applicants to have their own transport.

• Youth Investment: The annual absorption of 500 township youth into learnerships and the launch of a dedicated Youth Employment Accelerator.

• Spatial Justice & Transparency: Significant investment in local infrastructure—including debilitated schools and factories—and full public disclosure of BMW’s BBBEE scorecard and transformation strategy.

The memorandum goes beyond BMW, levelling serious questions at the entire industry’s Automotive Industry Transformation Fund (AITF), asking why, after a R600 million investment, only ~7% of value add has gone to Black industrialists.

“Rosslyn’s industrial zone was built on apartheid spatial planning. BMW inherited this legacy and has a moral obligation to dismantle it—not perpetuate it,” the memo states, grounding its demands in South Africa’s Constitution and various acts.

“Township exclusion is not a market failure; it is a deliberate outcome of monopolistic design.”

The community has given BMW and the industry 15 days to respond in writing to the memorandum.

The industry includes BMW, Ford, Isuzu, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen, the AITF Board, and DTIC.

The document concludes with a powerful historical warning, invoking the memory of Sharpeville and Marikana “not as threats, but as reminders of what happens when economic injustice is ignored.”

The announcement sets the stage for a significant confrontation between one of South Africa’s most prominent industrial communities and a global automotive powerhouse.