I have been busy with a lot of PVC product installations over the past few months.

Been encountering a LOT of reject SABS approved products (with the SABS stamp)

By reject I mean 20 mm PVC couplings which have a 10 mm hole instead of a 20 mm hole due to the what apparently is called plastic flash ... in some cases the hole is completely blocked.

20 mm female adaptors which has a 16 mm hole due to what seems like a worn mould.

PVC conduit which explodes when you try bend it ... it could be a bad run of plastic or been left out in the sun for an extended period of time.

25 mm conduit which is has inconsistant wall thickness and overal diameter ... you have to tape insulation tape onto the pipe to get the coupling to fit.

Today a piece of 20 mm conduit ... I didnt look for an SABS mark ... inconsistant wall thickness ... as I cut the conduit it collapsed and broke.

But the thing that has really got under my skin ... because it is suppose to be a good old product ... the CLT range of cable line trunking ... I bought some today to use as a wireway for some thick cables ... so instead of buying the other white rubbish trunking on the market supplied by most wholesalers ... I choice to rather get the expensive trunking supplied by places like cabstrut ...

What a diappointment ... I cut a piece and was busy joining 2 pieces ... what I didnt realise and didnt think it would be a big deal ... was I had a piece from the opposite side ... I couldnt beleive it ... the F^%&*^% crap is like all the other PVC junk on the market at the moment ... the thickness is inconsistant ... the lip is not same from one side to the other ... the bead along the side just disappears ... what I would think ... anything legit plastic manufacturer would regard as reject product.

Here the question ... are the manfucaturers aware of these rejects being sold by the wholesalers ... maybe they know that there is no control over junk sold in SA so they can get away with it ... or trying to compete against the other junk being dumped in SA ?

is someone cleaning out the reject bin and selling the stuff out the back door to the wholesalers maybe at a better price and mixing it in with the legit stuff ... maybe the wholesalers are aware of it and mixing it in with the legit stuff ?

Its like dealing with Hilti ... it seems they have a racket going on with machine services ... machines are collected from site and delivered back to site (every service comes with a courier fee of R200) .. .who would even know ... a machine goes in for a service ... charged a R1000 ... then sent back ... to see it is for real ... this time there is a R2000 service charge ... for parts which need to be replaced ... yet the machine has not been used ... it seems they have decided to go quiet and hope it goes away.

anyway back to the PVC ... I can only assume there is either not longer quality control for PVC product sold in SA or there is no longer SABS standards in SA .

Then I ask myself this question ... how are inspectors signing off COC's ... I am sure there is a section which requires the inspector to acknowledge the product installed are SABS approved ... what am I missing ?

I suppose the only suckers who loose at the end of the day is the customer ... the rules have been modified to make it extremely difficult for the customer to lodge a complaint and actually get a result ... so they just roll over and accept whatever crap is thrown at them.

This people is where you call out the DOL ... the OSHACT ... ECA and ECB and anyone else who makes out like they are all for the customers safety ... its all bullshyte ...BLAH BLAH BLAH.