The company you are dealing with in South Africa is not Ford Motor Company. Every page on ford.co.za closes with the line Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa (Manufacturing) (Pty) Ltd, abbreviated FMCSA, and that is the entity named on local paperwork, on the B-BBEE certificate and in the PAIA manual. Ford Motor Company itself is the parent in the United States and does not take South African queries. Getting the name right matters when you are writing a formal letter, lodging a data request or naming a respondent.
The corporate channels FMCSA publishes
- Information requests under the Promotion of Access to Information Act: the PAIA manual and the Form 2 request for access to a record are downloadable at ford.co.za under PAIA Manual, with the manual issued 6 November 2025 and guides in English, Afrikaans and isiZulu.
- Ford Credit keeps a separate PAIA route from the vehicle business – a finance query does not go to the same place as a warranty query.
- The B-BBEE certificate is published as a download on the corporate information page rather than issued on request.
- Site Feedback, linked in the footer of every page, is the route for a complaint about the website itself rather than about a vehicle.
For anything about a car – a service, a warranty, a fleet order – the Customer Relationship Centre on 0860 011 022 is the only telephone route Ford publishes in South Africa, and it sits in front of all of the above.
Do not phone the factory
FMCSA runs two manufacturing sites here: the assembly plant at Silverton in Pretoria, which builds the Ranger, and the engine plant at Struandale in Gqeberha, where a R600 million investment brought in the 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel alongside upgrades to the 2.0-litre single-turbo and bi-turbo engines. Neither plant publishes a public switchboard, and neither handles customer contact. A plant number found on a listing site will reach a gate or a supplier desk, not a service department.
The scale behind the name
- FMCSA has been trading in South Africa since 1923.
- 99 049 vehicles sold locally in 2024, with 66 284 exported.
- R15.8 billion committed to manufacturing operations, including R5.2 billion for production of the plug-in hybrid Ranger.
- Roughly 5 200 people employed directly, with about 60 000 jobs supported through the value chain.
That export share is the reason a South African query sometimes bounces between local and global teams: the Silverton line builds for markets Ford does not serve from here, and a right-hand-drive question asked of a global channel will usually be sent back to FMCSA.
Three routes that are not FMCSA
- A dealership is an independent business. FMCSA sets warranty policy but does not run the workshop that annoyed you.
- Ford Credit is the finance house; account, settlement and arrears questions belong there.
- Roadside assistance on a Ford is delivered through the AA under the Ford Protect programme, not by the manufacturer directly.