By Nosihle Shelembe
Johannesburg – Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel says the competition authorities have been remarkably effective over the past 15 years.
“The competition authorities have done solid investigations as they have stepped up actions against cartels and promoted public interest consideration when conducting investigations,” he said on Thursday.
He was addressing delegates at the 8th Annual Competition, Law, Economics and Policy Conference in Johannesburg.
"The remedies and fines imposed by the competition authorities climbed ten fold compared to the previous five years, call it 1000 percent, reaching over R6 billion," he said.
Minister Patel said the increasing penalties paid by colluders were an indication of the level of solid investigations done by the Competition Commission and the compelling evidence they were uncovering.
The Competition Commission was empowered by the government to investigate, control and evaluate restrictive business practices.
The commission also probed abuse of dominant positions and mergers in order to achieve equity and efficiency in the South African economy.
Minister Patel said the competition authority had come into their own with solid pipelines of anti-cartel investigation, the systematic consideration of public interest and issues in merger acquisition.
He said he was particularly pleased at the strategic and innovative manner in which the commission dealt with industries such as the bread, poultry, flour, construction, telecommunications and steel.
The competition authority had increased its budget from R65 million in 2009 to R190 million in 2014. The number of staff also doubled from about 80 to 160.
Economic transformation
Minister Patel told delegates that in the next five years government would step up efforts towards economic transformation ensuring high employment and dynamic growth.
He said government would promote the manufacturing, mining and agriculture sectors to ensure sustainable economic growth.
"We need to speed up the process of growth of small businesses, bringing in young entrepreneurs to strengthen development of black industrialists,” he said.
According to Minister Patel, South Africa’s economy had created 1.4 million new jobs since the adoption of the New Growth Path, four years ago.
"In the last five years, the state had spent R1 trillion on infrastructure provision," he said.
He said in less than 20 years of democracy, more electricity had been connected to households compared to the 106 years of colonialism and apartheid.
The first house to have electricity in South Africa was in 1809. According to the census which was done in 1996, 5.2 million homes were connected to the electricity grid.
"From 1996 till today more than 7.2 million additional homes were connected,” Minister Patel said. – SAnews.gov.za
