President Cyril Ramaphosa seeks much-accelerated investment and wishes to create a conducive environment with increased opportunities for investment. Such opportunities multiply when new goods and services, new modes of production or new forms of business organisation replace existing ones. Investment related to this "creative destruction" requires open, competitive markets. Policies that promote competition are therefore critical to the investment drive and the recent review and revision of competition policy would appear to be a welcome development. Regrettably, the new Competition Amendment Bill, which seeks to amend competition law in fundamental ways, may worsen competitive outcomes and inhibit investment. The South African competition policy regime counts among the most effective internationally, because it is data-driven and subject to scrutiny. The bill weakens this focus. If competition authorities investigate a merger or potentially anticompetitive behaviour, they must def...
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