Biggest automotive company in South Africa in trouble
Automotive giant Motus is facing a legal showdown after unions moved to challenge a retrenchment process and deep cuts to employee salaries and benefits that could slash pay packages by as much as 30%.
The JSE-listed group employs more than 20,000 people globally, with over 13,000 staff based in South Africa.
Over more than 70 years, Motus has grown from a small Johannesburg dealership into the biggest non-manufacturing automotive group in sub-Saharan Africa.
The group sells 36 vehicle brands locally and operates major rental businesses, including Europcar and Tempest.
Despite the company’s success in South Africa, it noted that it is under pressure to restructure its operations and rein in costs.
At the end of 2025, Motus initiated a formal retrenchment consultation process in terms of section 189 of the Labour Relations Act, placing 86 employees at risk of losing their jobs.
This followed what the company described as a reassessment of its “operational requirements”, which showed that “a review and realignment of its South African Retail business and operating structure were necessary”.
Motus stressed that the affected roles represent “less than 2% of the overall roles” in its domestic retail division and are “mainly administrative or support functions”.
The group added that it “remains committed to finding alternatives to possible retrenchment for the affected employees” and said the consultation process would formally conclude on 31 January.
It also pointed out that, regrettable as these role redundancies are, Motus South Africa still recorded a net increase in headcount between June and December 2025.
However, the retrenchments are only part of the controversy. According to the Motor Industry Staff Association (MISA), a much larger group of employees has been hit by a sweeping restructuring of remuneration and benefits.
MISA spokesperson Sonja Carstens said Motus initially indicated that as many as 258 jobs could be cut. “We managed through consultations to get that figure down to only 86,” she said.
Legal battle looming
Carstens said the deeper pain lies with a second group of workers. Another 546 employees are facing cuts to benefits and remuneration.
“Some of these cuts are up to 29% to 30% of your total cost-to-company package, which is very severe,” Carstens added.
MISA argued that Motus’s approach has been too abrupt. According to Carstens, the company maintained that simply closing underperforming dealerships would not be enough to deal with overcapacity and its national wage bill.
However, the union believes that a more gradual approach could have reduced the shock to employees.
The cuts come after Motus reported a 1% decline in revenue for the year ended June 2025, with turnover of about R112.6 billion.
Motus Group CEO Ockert Janse van Rensburg acknowledged strategic missteps in an annual letter to shareholders, admitting that the company was slow to embrace Chinese vehicle brands.
“Our strategy regarding Chinese brand representation was initially too defensive,” he said, noting that the group is now playing catch-up.
Despite the reasons for the cutbacks, MISA has declared a formal dispute with Motus and is preparing to approach the Johannesburg High Court for an interim interdict to stop the company from implementing the salary and benefit cuts.
MISA CEO Martlé Keyter said the union’s members did not agree to any salary or benefit cuts and were not given an alternative.
She added that Motus Retail cannot unilaterally implement cuts to existing conditions of employment.
Keyter said MISA would continue to address the reasonableness and fairness of Motus Retail’s decisions and would pursue all lawful avenues to protect its members’ interests.
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