EFF VOTE AGAINST COMPETITION AMENDMENT BILL IN PARLIAMENT

Wednesday, 24 October 2018

Yesterday the EFF voted against the Competition Amendment Bill in Parliament.

South Africa's economic concentration was built over hundreds of years based on exploitation and exclusion of black, Africans and women and this cannot be reversed by superficial regulations. We voted against the Competition Amendment Bill because our view is that we should unbundle monopolies and give workers shares.

In South Africa, the economy is dominated by the richest four billionaires who according to Oxfam have more wealth than 26 million South Africans, and their dominance is across all sectors. These people, amongst themselves own a lot of shares in the top five banks, who combined own more than 90% of the total banking assets. This is despite the fact that there are more than 60 banks in South Africa including mutual and cooperatives.

At the beginning of September, the South African Reserve Bank gave an instruction to Discovery Bank that it cannot launch because FirstRand holds more than 26% in Discovery. Then Discovery Bank disposed the stake to a Discovery Holding, but all these are owned by the same people who own Grindrod, FNB and Wesbank. Even with competition laws, these large corporations have a way of moving their shareholding.

The EFF has always correctly characterized South Africa's economy as a form of capitalism that is concentrated in few hands and the common denominator amongst all these corporations is a Rupert owned company called Remgro. In terms of medical schemes, we have three medical schemes that account for more than 90% of the market share in South Africa. In the pharmaceutical space, we have Aspen, Adcock who combined account for 90% of the market shares.

In refineries, we have Chevron, Sasol, Engen and Shell who amongst the four, share almost 100% of the market share. In retail, we have Spar, Checkers, Pick n Pay and Woolworth account for more than 70% of the market share. MultiChoice is the only pay television platform that has done everything possible to ensure that no new players enter the market. South Africa has high levels of market concentration in all sectors, as a results small and emerging businesses are excluded from participation.

As the EFF, we voted against the Competition Amendment Bill because we think that there must be a much thorough discussion about how to dismantle monopoly industries for people as a whole to share in the mineral resources and wealth of South Africa. The amendment bill is dealing with superficial issues on the surface while apartheid beneficiaries continue to consolidate and entrench economic concentration.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 24 October 2018