The Competition Commission

So they're called the International Trade Administration Commission.

They do sit under the DTIC, but they have their own legislation and they are independent in the same way that the Competition Commission would be.

And so their job is essentially to do one big and very important job, and that is to determine what the tariffs are that you need to pay on a product that you import, whether they be anti-dumping duties or any other kind of tariff.

And the second thing is to help manage important export controls.

Operating profit down a third to 255 million.

And 95 million of that was a once-off profit from selling quarries that the Competition Commission forced AfriMac to sell.

Strip that out.

And the business earned about 160 million in the six months.

With a little blessing, he said, AfriMatch could be debt-free within two years.

That means paying off about a billion rand a year.

In the first half of the current financial year, they paid off 155 million rand, most of it from the quarries that they had to sell because of the competition commission.

So how does that sum work? obviously only if Cement is sold or partnered for proper money.

Streaming on the Prime Media Plus app and DSTV channel 856.

Confirmation now that government is adding a regulation that says the Competition Commission must give a company a chance to comply with stipulated conditions before forcing that company to undo a merger.

Now, you remember the Competition Commission recommending to the Competition Tribunal that it unwind the merger between the Premier Group and the Rhodes Food Group because of the way it wants to retrench workers.

As I understand it, This change would not affect that merger.

Mapanga Maseko is a specialist in competition regulatory compliance practice at MVR Attorneys.

Mapanga, good evening and thanks for your time.

How significant is this new regulation? What does it mean for the Competition Commission?

I think it's significant.

and is now considering legal action under competition legislation.

It's also taken its concerns to the Competition Commission.

The chief executive of the cooperative is Andre van Heerden, who joins me on the program now.

Andre, just explain it to us from your perspective then.

But,

you know, with cost of shipping and those import costs and transport, obviously, it's going to be getting more expensive for the consumer.

And just finally, as I referenced, you've approached the Competition Commission.

Andre, what exactly are you asking it to investigate or intervene in?

They'd want to continue to, uh, have, uh, the market to themselves and control the market in that way.

Just to add that the Competition Commission is also investigating this.

So as much as, um, I don't want to just be speaking [laughs] and then you say, "Listen, what is underpinning this?" It is also ...

There is also an investigation by the Competition Commission on this pricing.

I want to circle back to that figure of 16.2%.

Uh, you say the trade protection has pushed prices up by that percentage.

So in the past, prior to 2003, ourselves, the hospital association as well as the South African Medical Association would sit down on a yearly basis contemplate what increases would be available.

There was a deemed to be collusive behavior by the Competition Commission itself in 2003.

What that meant is that I think at that time we had in excess of a hundred schemes and what the implications are that each and every one of these schemes including the small ones had to have to sit down with every provider or facility and negotiate.

And the market power obviously shifted to the bigger players.

This was already sent as a document in 2019 and the power is within the council and the Ministry of Health to actually implement it.

we have i think about four years ago

um asked the competition commission to give

us an exemption to allow us to negotiate on on behalf of our schemes

There's more on power987.co.za.

The Competition Commission has applied to the Competition Tribunal to revoke its, uh, conditional approval of the Premier and RFG merger, which was approved in March this year and implemented later that month.

Now, the commission says the parties failed to disclose plans to potentially close RFG's fruit canning facility in Tulbagh.

And, uh, Ashley Seckel, commu- uh, commercial attorney, uh, joins us now on the program.

We ...

Uh, thankfully, you know, this is not the first time that we're having discussions of this nature.

So in terms of Section 16(3) of the Competition Act, NosiPho, uh, there is provision there that if, uh, it does appear after the merger has been approved or implemented that there was some, uh, false information or some deceitfulness or a failure to comply with the conditions of a, uh, with the condition or conditions of an approval, uh, the Competition Commission can always investigate that and then approach the tribunal, uh, to have, uh, their historic approval set aside or the merger un- um, unwinded.

So of course, in turning to the issue of non-disclosure here, um, Ashley, the, the really important issue, which seems to be, you know, the allegation that material information was not disclosed during the merger process.