CTO Investigates Tyres

Botwana’s Central Transport Organisation (CTO) is investigating suggestions that some governmental departments bought retreads from Spain thinking they were new tyres. The CTO says it has information to confirm that the tyres in question are not retreads.

However, Botswana’s national press agency (BOPA) has released a confusing report on the subject. “The word retread was used to conform to the European Environmental Standards meaning that the tyre is recyclable,” CTO general manager, Lt. Colonel Moakofhi Modisanyane is quoted as saying in response to a BOPA enquiry.

Lt. Col. Modisanyane explained that the quality of the tyres was being investigated as a few tyres have failed prematurely. As a matter of safety CTO has forwarded samples for testing with the relevant authorities.

Correspondence from the unnamed Spanish tyre manufacture states that, the word retread on the sidewall has nothing to do with the production process of the tyres and instead is related to European environmental issues. “The fact of the matter is that we do not produce retread tyres and the law does not allow that,” the manufacturer is quoted as saying.

Botswana banned the use of retread tyres on government vehicles in 1995 after discovering that a number of accidents in which students and government officials lost their lives were “attributable to the blowing up of retread tyres, which were not as strong as new ones.”