Chairperson, I hereby give notice that on the next sitting day of the Council I shall move:
That the Council -
1) notes with utmost dismay the biggest scandal to ever hit the auction industry where it is alleged that one of the biggest auction companies, Auction Alliance, was involved in massive kickbacks, corruption, bribery, mismanagement, misrepresentation and blatant organised systemic fraud with some of the largest banks, lawyers and liquidators;
2) further notes that since the scandal surfaced a number of people in the auction industry, including liquidators and attorneys, have come forward to confess to receiving massive bribes from Auction Alliance and other auction companies to manipulate the auctions in their favour by planting ghost auctioneers to overshoot prices and, in some instances, undervalue properties that they wanted to procure and later sell at exorbitant prices;
3) takes this opportunity to condemn in the harshest possible terms such a blatant level of greed and utmost unethical conduct of the attorneys, banks and liquidators to blatantly rob and manipulate auctioneer processes for their gratuitous greed; and
4) calls on the Ministers of Trade and Industry, Economic Development and Finance to establish a commission that will thoroughly investigate the auction industry and the relevance of the SA Institute of Auctioneers, SAIA, and ensure that those found to have enriched themselves in dubious ways and peddled systemic fraud to rob people and inflate the prices of properties are made to face the full might of the law for their repulsive and selfish deeds.