ACCOUNTABILITY AND GOVERNANCE
Ford incidents show private sector impunity at work
SA’s Competition Commission has really been a knight in shining armour against big business collusion, writes Onkgopotse JJ Tabane
Last year, a lot was said as part of the national discourse about public sector impunity flowing from the Constitutional Court judgment on Nkandla as well as the public protector’s State of Capture report. As a result, not much attention was paid to private sector impunity, which has become endemic and shapes economic power relations in SA. Last year saw some horrible collusion in the steel industry, and the latest anticompetitive scandal relates to underhanded practices in even the supply of school uniforms. But we need not be puzzled as it seems the tendency for collusion knows no ethical bounds. Remember the collusion that occurred in the market for a commodity as basic as bread a few years ago, when the finger pointed to big corporates such as Tiger Brands?The Competition Commission has really been a knight in shining armour, showing some courage in taking on the biggest business culprits and making them pay for their misdemeanours. The jury is still out on whether the fines imp...
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