Posts from @cryptoandcoffee

South African Sports Governing Bodies An Excuse To Steal And Abuse

cryptoandcoffee — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 19:49:54 GMT

The warning was October last year and has taken an ultimatum to get the head of SA Athletics removed this week.

This week we had the axing of the Athletics South Africa president who was using the federations credit card for his own personal use and not for business. Reports suggest this was more like a slush fund card and World Athletics gave the ASA an ultimatum to fire their head or face an international ban.

The madness is this had to be pointed out to the ASA Board back in October 2025 when he was suspended and even then they were reluctant to take any steps. The problem with dealing with people who are uneducated is that they cannot see that this is not normal behavior and believe this is part of the perks of holding such a position. Imagine having your head of sport suspended for 1 year and still not firing them. No wonder World Athletics gave them this ultimatum otherwise he would still remain in charge.

The world body has given them 6 months to clean things up and rewrite their policies for South African athletics. Only now are they taking this seriously as nothing had been done for months and the president has now been fired. Normally in SA they like to suspend their officials keeping them on full pay and why there are no funds for these sports.

When you look back over the years there is always some sporting body in trouble with internal corruption because these are government ministers or friends of the government being given these leading roles. They all know no different and stealing is what they do.

April 19th 2020 SASCOC - South African Sport Confederation and Olympic Committee suspended a board member for the first time after interfering with elections. Unbelievable depending on how you see this as then he went on to win those elections. He was suspended for the second time last month for underhand dealings not conclusive of the code of conduct. Guaranteed this is all monetary related and the full story will come out as it always does.

SA Football Association president charged with fraud and unbelievably still won reelection with fraud charges still in place. He is a former Mayor of Port Elizabeth and has been running football in SA for 13 years. Not surprisingly SA Football is basically bankrupt and only qualifying for the World Cup did receiving large cash payments from FIFA are they staying afloat for the time being. A totally corrupt organization, but then so is FIFA so he is their perfect candidate.

SA Netball president suspended and removed by World Netball for financial irregularities. This again is having the world body step in to remove a corrupt person in charge of a sport as the local governing board would never do that.

Swimming SA had to remove their leadership as they were found guilty of abuse of power and forging documents for various swimmers. This at least was not monetary, but this was still illegal. They also head back prize money owed to swimmers after one swimmer was using Speedo instead of Arena and according to them breached the sponsorship deal. They eventually had to pay the prize money and interest owed on that prize money which they were trying to keep. Other sporting bodies would have just spent that money.

I have never forgotten my wife's Uncle who was the President of Clairwood Racecourse in Durban for many years. Two prominent black officials asked them how they could become the president of the racecourse and he told them it was voluntary and voted on by the members. They asked how much he was paid and when he mentioned it was voluntary with no pay they were no longer interested. Obviously for networking this type of role or position would be very lucrative and not paying a salary is short sighted.

The bigger sports like Rugby and Cricket seem to be above board because they have not had financial difficulty and only when sports run into trouble are the books open for everyone to see. Cricket I do think will be the next sport in the spotlight in SA as those running the sport are not cricket people so what could possibly go wrong.

Durban House Being Converted Into 4 Independent Flats

cryptoandcoffee — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 16:27:24 GMT

The person who bought our property in Durban proposes to turn the property into 4 independent flats for rental purposes. The size of the property being 1450 meters squared plus a large flat driveway allows for all sorts of options.

I was doing the calculations last night and this is actually a very good idea because of the return on investment will be fairly quick. I was told by our estate agent the plan is to create another extension and then divide the property into 4 self contained flats.

Once completed these would rent in the region of R13K each offering the landlord a R50K monthly income. This after costs would have the property paid off within 5 years and after that the buyer would be in the profit. If you have the means and knowledge then yes this is an ideal property to convert.

Sadly this is happening far too often with family houses being lost and why there are fewer and fewer properties offering a spot for grandparents to move in along with their children. This property was ideal for multi generational living and is a sign of those times coming to an end.

Back in the 1990's and early 2000's this is what the majority of families desired due to having the responsibility of looking after their parents. This was just how my generation was raised and thought because it was a matter of taking responsibility for the elders in your family.

When we lived in the UK there were some properties that became available on auction from the road department after it had purchased properties to demolish to make way for a new road. This never materialized and those properties were released on auction going to sealed bids and I failed on two occasions to land one of these larger family properties.

My bet is developers purchased these and demolished them and created multiple homes instead which is always sad to see disappear. Having a large garden for the children to play in safely and separate accommodation for granny and grandpa is something only the rich would have as for the average person this is just out of reach financially. I have no idea what the sealed bids were and if I was even close or not, but at least I had swung for the fences with my best efforts.

Our house in Johannesburg actually offers the extra accommodation with a living area the size of the house again. We do not even visit this which may seem odd as there is work that needs doing here. I believe it was the entertainment area for the pool and was also once used as a pre school by the previous owners.

When we purchased the property this area was not even registered on the plans and a conditional of sale was this had to be included which it was. This made the Johannesburg purchase a proper bargain as this was never valued into the original asking price.

The plan moving forward is to renovate this area and create the one large room into an office which is the size of 4 garages. The other areas which put together are triple that size would be left a blank canvas for the next owner. As a party entertainment area next to the pool one could really have a great spot or turn this into a 3 bedroom property very easily.

Once we start the work next year I will take photographs and you will understand how large this space really is and properties today you just do not find like this anymore. I would comfortably say without any renovation this property doubled in value once those plans had been adjusted to include the other property. Profit is made when you purchase and not necessarily when you sell.

Too Little Too Late - Same Old Story With More Promises

cryptoandcoffee — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 19:45:03 GMT

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Today the ANC started their election campaign with regard to the local municipality elections which are 2 weeks away on the 4th November. I have never paid attention to these types of things as all political parties lie to some degree and the ANC is no different.

The six point pledge got me however as they are promising to fix the things they have broken and had the audacity to blame the infrastructure on the previous Apartheid government. That was 32 years ago so hardly an excuse that can still be sued yet they said they inherited the infrastructure which besides the obvious was working back then. This was never mentioned for reasons we all know as this 6 point pledge is all about gaining votes from their own supporters who are looking for other candidates.

This is more about panic stations for the ANC as they face a definite challenge from other parties who all have a realistic chance of winning. The problem with the mass voters is they will dilute their vote due to ignorance which allows a party like the Democratic Alliance to sneak in under the radar mainly supported by educated being the middle and upper class.

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The ANC has been failing to deliver for years with regard to accountability and spend of municipal budgets with little or no maintenance happening and the focus on stealing those funds. There has been no service delivery resulting in failed infrastructure due to financial mismanagement.

the ANC has been in power for 32 years so why would anyone believe this will have a different outcome because they are saying so? Without stating the obvious the people expect drinking water, reliable electricity, refuse collections and maintained infrastructure like roads and working traffic lights. In most cases for the masses this is not happening and this is going to be an impossible sell because enough is enough.

The 6 pints of the ANC pledge are actually quite laughable and you wonder how they had the audacity to even read this out. The one reading it out was no other than Cyril Ramaphosa who is as weak as they come.

Reliable and affordable basic services. Upgrading electricity infrastructure and repairing water pipes. The water supply has got to a critical point where more water is lost per liter delivered to the taps through broken pipes.
Local Job creation. Unemployment at an all time high with no solution yet they talk about job creation.
Safer streets and cleaner neighborhoods. This is the job of a municipality already so this is what should have been happening all along so nothing new it just never happened. Services actually cost the tax payers more money because we pay for a police force yet we have to hire private security companies to protect our suburbs.
Financial Sustainability and Accountability. they have committed to funding unfunded budgets with regard to the auditor generals findings. Applying anti corruption measures and making councilors accountable. Again this should be the normal and not something you have to spell out due to it not happening and this has all happened under their governance.
Maintenance and Audit goals. Aiming for a 50% pass rate on municipal audits is not a goal one should be setting as they should all be 100% with the new accountability in place.
First 100 days will have a public report drawn up proving the changes that are being made.

This is desperation if you have ever seen desperation because everything pointed out is what should have been happening from day one 32 years ago. Everyone knows there will be no change and what was quite telling is the Sowetan Newspaper saying to their readers please vote these fools out.

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The white "Gogo" granny is a serious threat with growing support due to her stunts on this election campaign to become mayor of Johannesburg. From swimming in potholes with goggles and a snorkel to highlighting the abandoned Johannesburg administration building which is still serviceable and a new building is not required. the ANC is in deep trouble as all their faults have been pointed out to the public through each stunt.

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Cricket South Africa Ludicrous Test Dates Monday - Friday?

cryptoandcoffee — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:53:03 GMT

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Genius Move or The Dumbest Move Ever

Cricket South Africa has recently released their revenue figures for the 2025/26 season and they are not looking great. That is kind of an understatement as the losses were R440 million, but in the context this was expected and has to be seen as part of a 4 year cycle. The 4 year cycle actually raised a profit of R493 million so even though this last year impacted the books the 4 year cycle was still profitable.

The reality is any home test series that does not feature the top 3 test high revenue playing nations being India, England and Australia then those series will be a revenue loss due to television broadcast rights being much lower.

As a business model this is high risk and even though most test matches create a loss they still have to accept these fixtures. The cost of the touring team with hotels and flights is all covered by the host nation and why these test series are normally only two or three tests only. The big money is made when India or England visit as the number of supporters who travel with the team is significant along with the television rights being far higher.

The lack of test cricket played over the last 12 month sis a major concern with no test cricket being played at home. The first test cricket match played was two weeks ago with Australia on a 3 test tour currently. This will be followed by Bangladesh which will be another major loss and then England touring over Christmas and New Year which will recoup some of those losses.

Test cricket for those that do not know is played over 5 consecutive days and usually starts on a Wednesday or Thursday which then should guarantee a bumper crowd over the weekend.

The current test match being the 2nd test versus Australia started on a Sunday so the bulk of the game is being played during the week when spectators are working and will not be attending. The irony of this match is the first two days were lost to rain so the entire match is being played on working days.

Making matters worse is the Bangladesh test is being played between Monday and Friday so no weekend days for the spectators to attend. This is not normal and I would have no clue who thought this was a good idea. If you are going to lose revenue this is a guaranteed way of having no spectators buying match tickets. the grounds will be empty so this series is relying fully on television rights. Whoever is the brainchild behind this needs to be removed as they are clueless and have no previous history with cricket or they would never be doing this. This sounds like a DEI hire and the entire Cricket Board is no different.

Maybe the television rights offered more money for these days as there would be no other live cricket on and possibly the Indian television stations were the only ones interested due to how big the cricket betting is in India. Any other reason would make no commercial sense and I am just guessing coming to my own conclusions on this.

Cricket south Africa has already penciled in a loss for the 2026/2027 season
banking on a profit for the 2027/2028 season as that would include the revenue from the hosted One Day World Cup. The losses this year also include upgrades spent on the various venues that will be hosting that World Cup.

Revolut Outage

cryptoandcoffee — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 19:32:00 GMT

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Yesterday there was a problem with the Revolut online bank and was actually a widespread outage for other companies as well and not solely a Revolut issue. Google cloud services had an outage which disrupted courts, HSBC, Lloyds Bank and Revolut. In total 36 major businesses including data centers were affected and Google only offers credit with no compensation.

I was blissfully unaware of this outage which effected the Europe West 2 B Zone. This was basically the entire day starting at 7 am UK time so 8 am my time in SA and services were coming back online after 3pm so 4pm here in SA. I never visited the shops yesterday so that was a stroke of luck as I rarely carry any back up bank cards for our other bank account.

A Quick Apology And Update

This would have affected myself as my account is UK based and Revolut is based in Central London so all their services come from one site. It does not matter where you are in the world if the app runs from a centraised service and is a massive weakness in the entire operating system. This is an eye opener as all of these institutions are reliant on one service and if that service goes down they are all out of action.

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Lloyds and Halifax experienced an outage exactly one year ago on the same day which must have made Lloyds move to Google to avoid these issues and here they are again.

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Last years outage with AWS saw companies affected receiving roughly 8% in compensation with some companies reimbursed between 10 and 100% of their monthly cloud storage costs. The problem is an entire day lost with down time is only part of the losses as banks cannot earn on no transactions which would be in the millions of dollars in lost revenue.

The real terms in losses is anywhere between $1 million and $5 million per hour so yesterdays outage of 8-10 hours was costly yet Google does not compensate the lost business. The problem is down time for engineering staff which then have to catch this time back up and this bill would run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars price tag.

The exposure for every hour lost has a direct impact as those clients will not necessarily remain with that cloud service provider and yesterdays Google outage will historically mean that around 2% of clients will leave for another service provider.

Some interesting stats on Google Cloud is in 2025 this business generated $58.7 billion in revenue. This averages out at $160.8 million per day or $6.7 million per hour globally with no figures publicly available per region. The growth is mind blowing with an estimated 82% year on year growth with revenue just in Q2 this year surpassing $24 billion and on track for a $100 billion revenue in 2026.

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The growth is significant with demand growing with companies needing infrastructure and solutions for AI. Growth is expected to stay on this type of trajectory which is revealing where companies are now investing in their own systems.

SA Rugby Has A Doping Problem

cryptoandcoffee — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 16:46:51 GMT

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South African rugby recently announced that another junior player had tested positive for the use of anabolic steroids and will most likely face a lengthy ban before his career has even got off the ground. A total of 7 new players tested positive this year and does not reveal the truth as a lack of testing is hiding a much bigger problem.

If You Do Not Test Then There Is No Doping Problem Kind Of Mentality

The stats above do not tell a full story and are misleading because this is more about the number of doping tests undertaken. This is over a 10 year period so the number of rugby players caught is minimal when you compare the number of players being tested each year. The UK leading the charts is more to do with lower amateur leagues than high end youngsters even though there are some who are caught out. The UK also does far more testing than other countries so as a percentage they would have higher numbers.

Australia and New Zealand have had one or two high end professional players who have been caught with some of them being more about treating injuries whilst using banned substances. France has had positive tests with players that has been using recreational drugs like cocaine so not necessarily performance enhancing drugs.

Georgia which does not even feature on this list were caught out recently when the team doctor received a life ban after many of their top players tested positive for anabolic steroids. The doctor was administering a program designed for the team which saw the captain receive an 11 year ban.

South Africa accounts for 20% of all the rugby players testing positive yet has the highest number of players per country with the fewest tests undertaken. SA Rugby saying that they had a decrease in players testing positive is more to do a with a six fold drop in testing. SA has anywhere between 430K-450K rugby players in the country compared to other countries like the UK 380K, France 500K, Australia 230K and New Zealand 150K. If you test less than other countries then it will look like the sport is under control because your results will not reflect as a direct comparison to other countries who are testing far higher numbers each year.

South Africa does have a doping problem with their junior rugby players and the only way to clean the sport up is to increase the number of tests undertaken. The junior players that are testing positive need to receive longer bans than the standard 4 year ban as a deterrent needs to happen and those being caught made an example of making those who are cheating think twice.

I have mentioned before that when I played rugby it was at a time when the sport was changing turning from an amateur to a professional sport. I never used any enhancing drugs and was naive to think others would not either. I witnessed first hand players doubling in size over a 12-18 month period and most of these players did this overseas in places like Italy and France. This was not subtle as this was that obvious to those that knew these players. Those that cheated or let me say those that I knew who cheated were rewarded and benefitted with professional contracts so their plan did work.

What I would like to see is a massive clean up of the sport in South Africa with a nation wide testing program on school boy rugby players. When you are only testing the high end players who are already well on their way to turning professional the testing is happening too late and needs to happen with 16-18 year old players. The madness of this is team mates know who is cheating because the physique of those players changes that quickly so this is not a secret.

Anti West Foreign Policy Has Consequences

cryptoandcoffee — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 19:12:30 GMT

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A country has trade agreements in place for a reason as they benefit each country they do business with. Why would any country who relies so heavily on this type of trade deal be so stupid to lose such a deal? South Africa is about to find out on how bad things are going to become because losing the US as a trade ally is suicidal.

On Monday the President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa stated that the country needs to be prepared in case South Africa is removed from the AGOA trade agreement with the United States. AGOA stands for the African Growth and Opportunity Act which is a unilateral trade preference meaning countries can pick and choose what is the duties or no duties that need to be paid on the traded items. There is no favoring one side over the other and can change or be adjusted at any time.

South Africa has benefitted with over 2000 products which had duty free access to the US markets for products like agricultural gods and automotive parts and vehicles. The vehicles are no longer duty free and why those manufacturers assembling in South Africa have now lost the US market. The duty free part made South Africa lucrative as a base to export into the US and now that this has disappeared there is no real reason to hang around anymore. The SA car market is way too small to justify these plants plus the carbon rich electricity is a negative for exporting to Europe since the introduction of CBAM.

When the person in charge says the country needs to prepare for something or to brace for the US blow then they already know and this announcement has not been made public or official yet. The AGOA trade agreement was extended until 2028, but more importantly those countries involved can be removed at any time.

Ramaphosa stating what I think we all knew means this announcement is imminent and a news channel has it down to a number of days so this could possible happen this week. Rampahosa talks about how important having access to the US market on a duty free basis yet at no point have they tried to mend the broken relationship. This I am afraid has always been a one sided affair with the SA Government thinking they can just keep taking with no consequences with regard to their ant West foreign policy. Joining BRICS was one thing, but then publicly stating the country is best friends with Iran and trades with Iran is shoving two fingers up to the rest of the world.

South Africa bought a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice for one reason only and that the ANC party was bankrupt and the Iran regime paid them money to lodge the case. The ANC was officially bankrupt back at the end of 2023, but miraculously announced that problem had stabilized. There was no proof of funding, but one can read between the lines of what happened here and most likely they received an exchange of goods like petrol and diesel instead of cash for lodging the case. A payment would have been too easy to find so this had to be done through other means that could be hidden.

If we rewind back to 2015 we can start to understand where South Africa has gone wrong economically and why all the jobs have vanished. AGOA back in 2015 was responsible for roughly 500 000 jobs directly and indirectly. The automotive industry had between 250k-275K employees and that figure is now barely making 100K. The fabric industry offers a similar decline, but more so as this industry is now a third party exporter as they import the fabrics from China. This changes the entire AGOA agreement as they used to manufacture their own cotton and fabrics. Fast forward to 2026 current day and the reports suggest that only 250 000 jobs rely on AGOA so in 11 years they have managed on their own accord to lose 250 000 jobs. These industries should have been growing and not shrinking.

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Over the years the US has started to fall way as one of the top two importing exporting trade partners for SA and this will drop even further once the AGOA membership has been cancelled. SA wine was a major beneficiary from this deal as SA were the only country with duty free wine flowing into the US.

We shall wait and see later this week what the markets will think of this as I expect the Rand will take a hefty knock. All those industries who established businesses here so they could tap into the US market duty free will be looking to move to neighboring countries in order to still receive these trade benefits.

Revolut Banking Points Adding Up Fast These Days

cryptoandcoffee — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 16:32:42 GMT

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Roughly one year ago I joined Revolut Banking as I has very few options left open to myself with regard to off shore banking. All the other banking options wanted $120K or $500K minimum balance deposits which Revolut did not require. Banking in South Africa is fine for the local currency being the Rand which you earn and pay taxes on, but not bringing foreign currencies into the country.

The Rand is on a depreciating slide and has been for many years with no hope oof returning to the glory years of single digits versus the USD, GBP or EURO. Last month the Rand was hovering around R16 to the Dollar and is now over R16.50. This you may think sounds like very little when in reality that is a 3% loss in buying power.

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8th May 2020 Rand reaches R19.26 against the dollar. This is more than enough reason to never exchange a good currency for a bad one and the Rand is bad expecting to decline in value.

Last night Revolut reminded me of the points that have been accumulating and being a debit card often in use then yes points add up very fast. I am not a big online shopper like the rest of my family so it makes me less impulsive so I see the value in the airline miles and the hotel bookings only.

The option of converting points for an Amazon Gift Voucher exchanging a
£428 face value for £153 makes little or no logic and why would anyone think they have got a great deal? The rewards may be free, but you have also earned them so make sure you get the full value. The airline miles are not quite a full return ticket to Europe so by this time next year that would be at least 75% or 80% off on two return tickets so from my end there is no rush to blow them now.

To think all the years (decades) I have had banking and I have got Sweet FA from any of them and an online bank in less than 12 months has been more generous than all of them put together. The savings account is also a great feature with compounding being offered with interest paid daily and for one I need to take more advantage of this deal.

With the Durban house sale plus another bag of money we never quite knew we had we will be opening another off shore account as back up to the Revolut account for just in case not relying on only one bank. This was my problem last year having all my banking tied to one institution which they closed that service after more than 30 years and I need to have other options in the future.

Funny how like spins you all these curved balls and we tend to always find a way to overcome them through necessity. 12 months ago I was spending 4 days in Dubai negotiating a bank account and sorting out a crypto off ramp for the future so I am grateful that has been sorted.

Perseverance Finally Being Justified

cryptoandcoffee — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 18:48:27 GMT

Earlier this year we sample a prospective client according to the specifications they gave us and we failed miserably. We supplied exactly what they requested and the wrap failed as it tore too easily. A little perplexed we were slightly upset as a lot of time and effort had already been put into landing this client as a customer.

I am a sucker for punishment as I hate any type of failure and will never just move on and leave something that is unfinished. This was a 6 month break from our last contact as one of the two contacts had left so I thought we need to act differently this time around. My son who is working with me must think I am a little touched upstairs going back to the same well each time and not achieving anything. When you are 90% there then why not as the hard work has already been done and it is now a process of solving the puzzle.

The person in charge agreed we could take this pallet wrap roll pictured above for analyses so we could see for ourselves what we were up against. The textile mill for all they knew was they were being supplied what was stated on the label of the product. A Super Saver 400mm wide a 1000 meter in length and a 11 microns thick plastic wrap roll. This is used on a machine which wraps bales for storage or boxed garments for dispatch.

This morning my business partner confirmed the same roll I had sent down had arrived and the testing had started. This is the deal breaker right here and why we have to revert to doing this type of testing. If all suppliers were honest and above board things would be far easier to compete against and they do this on purpose as most of their clients are clueless.

I had to wait patiently for a good 30 minutes and I thought I would share the results with you because then you will understand what I deal with daily. This roll is 400 mm wide which is correct and the length is 762 meters long so missing 238 meters or more as we always give a few extra meters per roll. The thickness was 15 micron and explains why our sample tore during testing and this roll did not. The weight of the roll including the cardboard center core should be 5.6 kilograms and theirs was 5.1 kilograms. Already they are being robbed 10% by weight and is nowhere near the specifications labelled on the product.

The solution is to supply the exact same specs back to the textile mill and quote accordingly without any labelled specifications. We will just label it in the name of this textile mill instead and keep this specification on record. This is actually really good news finding a fake specification because it has prevented us from competing on a level playing field and this is now game over for our competitor.

The only thing holding this textile mill back from ordering from us has been a "quality" issue even though it was more about the wrong specification which gave us no chance to compete. This is proper karma as we know they cannot compete against our pricing and I will gladly be informing them hen I return with a fresh batch of samples later this week or next week. This time I will hand around for testing and now for once I am looking forward to the 4 hour round trip. The perseverance will pay off and most definitely justifies why you need to keep battling away.

Car Went In For A Service And I Happily Refused All The Extras

cryptoandcoffee — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 16:29:27 GMT

Last week I booked my car in at the local Nissan dealership for a service and was dropped off this morning. This vehicle is still under a service and warranty plan which I made sure when I bought the vehicle. The service book was a mess and looked like the previous owner had done this haphazardly and we all know a service history kept up to date adds value to the vehicle. I made a call to get this done now to get this back into sequence so I know exactly where we stand.

Know Your Prices Or Have An Idea Of What Things Cost

I knew there would be a couple of things that need doing and was waiting for the call to tell me how much and was seriously blown away with the numbers. The front brake pads and discs were quoted at R10 300 and the back brake pads at R5 100 plus the battery at R8 800. I have to admit I had to aske a few times as I thought I had heard R8 800 for a battery and I had not misheard. Oh I forgot the windscreen wipers at R2 700 and kind of remembered why once the service plan is done no one uses dealerships for their servicing of vehicles any more.

I told the service manager to finish the servicing of the vehicle and to not do any of the other work as those prices are way too expensive. I will drive up the road to the brake specialist and tyre shop and see how much the brakes will cost once I have fetched the car. I can assure you the prices will be on a different level because Nissan are mad.

Not surprising when I phoned the service manager said he had availability the very next day which I was not expecting and delayed until today as I had prior commitments. When I visited the dealership and collected the vehicle I spoke with the service manager and said the prices are not exactly very good and admitted the battery price has shocked him the most. They must have a 300% mark up on these parts because where I am buying them from those are not cost price and also have their mark up added on and yet they seem cheap in comparison.

Just a few phone calls on the items like the battery replacement will cost R4300 as this vehicle has a stop start function. Still that is R4500 saved on the first item which is crazy just thinking about. The wipers at R2700 is also madness just thinking about as the cost for a complete set is R700 and another R2000 saved. So already I am saving R6300 by saying no to the dealership and also know the brake specialists will be far cheaper so it will be interesting how much those will cost.

I drove into my brake and tyre fitment center and low and behold we are looking at R1700 and R560 so all in around R2300. If the discs need replacing which they do not then that would have added another R2K per wheel on the front set.

After reading the service report the battery is what needs replacing first and this will be done this week. The wipers which are minimal are on 50% wear so are not exactly urgent. The brakes need to be done before the next service and will get those done next month. Talk about the dealership trying to pull a fast one.