Automobile Association of South Africa

We're going to get to know another leading executive a little bit better beyond their day-to-day responsibilities.

This week's executive is the chief executive officer of the Automobile Association of South Africa, Bobby Ramagwede.

He joins me on the line now to get to know him beyond his daily responsibilities.

Bobby, lovely having you on the show.

And funny enough, people don't know that I wanted to become a professional tennis player.

But unfortunately, I broke my foot at some point and It changed the trajectory of my aspirations to be a tennis player and I quickly found the economist and investment banker in me and I suppose the rest of my career can be seen on LinkedIn.

Why then move from investment banking, economics and all of that, all those fun things that some people enjoy so much into an organization like the Automobile Association of South Africa? What was the career path or some of the decisions I suppose that led to this move?

I'd be lying to you if I said that this was a well-coordinated and completely orchestrated journey.

So let's take a look at what's coming up over the next hour.

In a bit, we kick things off with our motoring segment, Santon Drive, as I take you back to an interview I did with the AA, the Automobile Association, about the safety standards of some of South Africa's vehicles.

And since that interview, I know there's been a lot of development, but I think it's still a very hot topic.

more in a bit then we take a listen back to an interview I did with the band member of Mikasa as the group marks its 15th anniversary this year as always I then catch up with our regular entertainment commentator to take a look at the latest on stage and screen and this week we've got a fresh discussion for you as we take a break from our rewind and finally a look back at a chat I did with the creators of Madame Zingara about this dinner theatre spectacle And then for our podcast community, a little extra bonus listen this week as I chat to Space by Josie Stahl to help you get organized and sort out those cluttered spaces just in time for that spring clean.

The findings released by the Global New Car Assessment Programme raise fresh questions about whether vehicles sold in South Africa offer the same level of safety as those in other global markets.

So to unpack the implications for consumers and the automotive industry, I'm joined by Bobby Romagüere.

He's the CEO of the Automobile Association, as we know as the AA Association.

And he's warned motorists to exercise extreme caution when choosing entry-level vehicles and has called out the lack of essential safety features like curtain airbags and electronic stability control across many models in the segment.

and I think I should just say now for those who are wondering you can't really tell from the outside you could tell from the VIN number get hold of the manufacturer and they would tell you but the easiest way the physical way that you can tell especially if you're thinking of buying one on the second hand market is that if you're inside the car above the seat belt mechanism are the words SRS airbag on both sides and that tells you that they

are side you've got the side protection okay yeah Now with us in studio once again, and thank you, Bobby, I know you've moved to flight again to be with us, but we really are being very fair and scrupulously fair in making sure we address the second Starlet test equally to the first CEO of the Automobile Association, Bobby Ramagwede.

I mean, Bobby, we focus on this particular vehicle, but again, this speaks to the bigger issue here of informing consumers to be aware of the fact that what they're buying is not necessarily the same as the car that's being sold in other markets.

Indeed, and I certainly hope that 10 years into this program, well, almost 10 years into this program, that the consumers realize that there's a big gap between what we consume locally at entry level versus what Europeans, Americans, and other markets consume.

And we can talk about it.

But just in general, the safer cars for Africa was started by Global NCAP together with the AA, the South African Association of Automobile Association.

And the reason for that is, unfortunately, the emerging markets, or I don't want to say third world, it sounds so negative.

The cars that we get here aren't the same cars that get sold in Europe.

Anyway, so I think what we've also learned today during the panel discussions and so on is it's changing.

It never used to be the case.

But with Global NCAP and the AA doing these kind of tests, putting out in the public, press releases, having media events like we did, they really changed the Indian market.

The Indian buyers now are very sort of, they want to know the crash test rating.

And Bobby Ramagwede.

the CEO of the AA, the Automobile Association.

He'll actually come in.

We'll speak to him at around 20 minutes to 7.

18 minutes now to 7 the time.

Well, earlier you would have heard of the huge increase in fuel prices.

And at the same time, the AA has been going on that big campaign to make our cars safer.

They actually crashed 32 cars as part of their program.