Sapref auctions fuel-testing machinery
Some of the machinery on auction has bids starting at R10 000.
SINCE March 20, Sapref has been holding an online auction to dispose of its machinery that was damaged by floods in 2022. The auction will close on March 28.
Also read: 350 Sapref workers to lose jobs
Some items on offer include fuel-testing machines and fuel-rating equipment. Almost all the machinery, which can be viewed online, has bids starting at R10 000.
The refinery was severely damaged by the April 2022 floods which came just after the company’s joint owners, Shell and BP, announced that the facility will cease producing fuel. The plan was for the site to be used as a storage facility for imported fuel. BP and Shell cited the high costs of modernising the refinery as a barrier to refurbishing it.
The KwaZulu-Natal government had expressed interest in buying the facility, but the floods scuppered those plans. Sapref has since offered most of its staff severance packages.
Questions to the company had not been answered at the time of going to press, but a former employee who spoke, on condition of anonymity, said the machines the company is selling are severely outdated.
“Some of these machines had been in operation since the company opened in the 1960s – who is going to buy them and for what? It would have been better to sell it to a recycling company for scrap,” said the former employee.
The auction will close on March 28.
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