Times Of Swaziland: MASS BLANKETS AUCTION RAKES IN OVER E2 MILLION IN 3HRS

MASS BLANKETS AUCTION RAKES IN OVER E2 MILLION IN 3HRS
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BY KWANELE DHLADHLA on 31/10/2017 08:41:00


MATSAPHA – The massive blankets auction where 8 208 bales of quilts (blankets)
and 102 loose quilts (blankets) went under the hammer raked in over E2 million
on the first day as nearly 2000 bales were sold.
Slightly over 100 people crammed the Matsapha Industrial Sites Swaziland Revenue
Authority (SRA) warehouse premises to take up the business opportunity. Despite
being sold at a minimum of 50 bales per buyer, members of the public acted smart
and put themselves into groups of 10 which made them eligible to make a
purchase. About 10 officers from the Royal Swaziland Police (RSP) were littered
at the warehouse which was a hive of activity yesterday.
The good as new blankets were being sold to interested bidders by Swazi
Auctioneers on a first come first serve basis. There was no reservation of
quantities since there was great interest from members of the public. The two
ply and three ply blankets packaged in varying sizes between 11, 13 and 16
blankets in each bale, were sold at E1 300 per bale across the board. The throws
were in 48 piece bales.
Auction
The public auction which started in earnest at 9am will run until November 8
subject to availability of the blankets. There was no choosing of bales allowed.
All bales were sold on as is basis (voetstoots). The highest buyers purchased
300 bales while the lowest buyer bought 50 bales. Sealed bid opening results
previously provided by SRA Director Communications Vusi Dlamini reflected that
the total number of bids that had been earlier received for the blankets was
seven. When quizzed on the results and whether the sealed bids received had been
accepted, Dlamini responded: “The highest bid was E9.6 million. In addition,
an offer to sell (was) made to the company that submitted the highest bid.”
In the transaction which seems to have failed to materialise for undisclosed
reasons, the blankets were being sold as a single lot through sealed bids. A
sealed bid, also known as blind auction, is a type of auction where all bidders
simultaneously submit sealed bids, so that no bidder knows the bid of any other
participant.
The highest bidder pays the price they submitted. SRA confiscated the blankets
after it discovered anomalies, including the valuation of the quilts for the
payment of customs duties. They were valued by Impunzi at US$1.50 each, which
raised suspicions at the SRA, given that investigations showed that the same
items were declared as being worth 10 times that when being imported into South
Africa. The matter was subject of a high-profile court case as Impunzi
challenged the SRA’s valuation of the blankets, which the Authority said
US$14.33 each. It has been earlier been reported by this publication that the
matter was withdrawn from court by Impunzi, leading to the SRA to keep the
blankets which provided the reason why they were being put up for sale through
auction.