Consumers face solo battle in R699 car scheme saga

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All is not lost for consumers who feel they were done in with the R699 car scheme.

On Thursday, Port Elizabeth High Court judge Dayalin Chetty dismissed an application for a class action certification in the R699 car scheme case.

Local attorney, Duncan Heuer, brought the application on behalf of Johannes Bartosh, one of hundreds of South Africans who were hoping that the courts would declare their contracts with several banks null and void.

The court action followed the collapse of an agreement between Hong Kong based company Blue Lakes and the local Satinsky Group, which marketed the subsidised scheme in South Africa.

Heuer said that the dismissal of the application now means that consumers will have to resolve their matters individually.

"We respect the decision of the court. We have been unsuccessful with certifying the consumers of the class for the purposes of bringing a class action on behalf of the consumers. This unfortunately means that consumers will have to resolve their matters individually. Our firms intention from day 1 has been to assist the consumers and we will continue to do so in any way we can." he said.