Tackling the structure of the economy has been a long-standing policy position of the current government. The latest policy tool applied to challenge industry is the newly signed Amended Competition Act 18 of 2018. The act’s stated intention is premised on multiple pillars to ensure broad-based economic transformation. Participation of previously disadvantaged persons and black-owned small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs), as well as improvement of institutional alignment between government departments and policies, is worthy of support. What is not helpful is the provision that aims to regulate the behaviour of firms by breaking up concentrated business in SA. This legislation is informed by a structuralist view that market concentration is to blame for the lack of economic transformation. Some believe this has led to artificial barriers for SMMEs that could provide cheaper, diversified and innovative products and services to consumers. Such reasoning presupposes that ne...
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