The South African competition authorities have developed a fairly extensive track record in penalising cartels. While the Competition Act (No. 89 of 1998) came into force in September 1999, in practice cartels really started being uncovered only after the Competition Commission of South Africa’s (CCSA) adoption of a corporate leniency programme in 2004 and the programme’s amendment in 2008 (Lavoie, 2010; Makhaya, Mkwananzi and Roberts, 2012). Since then there have been a large number of cases (see also World Bank and ACF, 2016), and the experience provides interesting insight into the challenges faced in making decisions regarding the appropriate penalties....

One of the preoccupations of competition authorities around the world is the investigation and prosecution of hard-core cartels. Cartels form when firms in a horizontal relationship (one between competitors) cooperate instead of compete. Saved from the burden of rivalry, firms have market power to charge higher prices and can collectively constrain supply, which would not be possible under conditions of competition. This has a negative impact on the cartel’s customers and ultimately on consumers. Cartel conduct is therefore considered the most deplorable of all anticompetitive conduct engaged in by firms, reflected in the manner in which competition authorities around the...

South Africa began to implement its modern competition law in 1998 after a series of reforms following the 1994 political transformation. Its successful enforcement against cartels is yet to be replicated in other economically interconnected countries in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Of the BLNS (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland) countries within the SACU community, only Lesotho does not have a competition law or enforcement system. The SADC operates on a larger scale and has 14 member states: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa,...

Excessive pricing is arguably the most contentious area of competition enforcement in many jurisdictions. There are diverse views on the need for intervention by competition authorities in dominant firms’ pricing of products and services (Evans and Padilla, 2005b; Ezrachi and Gilo, 2009; Motta and de Streel, 2006; Roberts, 2008). Those arguing against intervention are of the view that it is generally unnecessary as prices significantly above a competitive level will ordinarily attract new entry, resulting in competition which will in turn drive prices down (Calcagno and Walker, 2010; O’Donoghue and Padilla, 2006). Other grounds that are often cited for limited...

Economic regulation is largely about regulating the natural monopoly parts of value chains and generally involves the regulation of enterprises that are, or were, state-owned. Regulating access to, and pricing of, essential infrastructure, key inputs and bottleneck goods and services that cannot be easily replicated is considered necessary to ensure that fair access is provided and that monopoly prices are not charged (Viscusi, Vernon and Harrington, 1998). Economic regulation is also seen as a mechanism by which significant market failures can be corrected, or entrenched dominant positions kept in check. In certain industries, such as network infrastructure, the private sector...

Multinational capital is flowing into African agrifood systems in ways that are dramatically altering how food is produced and consumed in the region. While multinational investments in African food systems are not new, shifts in the political, economic and demographic landscape of the region have expanded the scope and scale of these investments. Over the last decade or so, much of sub-Saharan Africa has witnessed rapid urbanisation, sustained GDP growth, single-digit inflation and the emergence of an African middle class (Chikweche and Fletcher, 2014; Fine et al., 2012; Losch, 2012; Ncube, Lufumpa and Vencatachellum, 2011). These domestic transformations are taking...

There is an ongoing debate in South Africa regarding the transformation of the liquid fuel sector value chain, which has historically been controlled by a handful of large multinational oil companies.¹ The petroleum sector is strategic in terms of its wider impact on consumers, as a provider of inputs into other productive sectors of the economy and as an important influence on the trajectory of economic development. In South Africa, the sector benefited from substantial investments and support from the apartheid government for security of supply and national security reasons, particularly in light of widespread sanctions in the years prior...

As a middle-income country with high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment, and a legacy of historically skewed economic participation, South Africa has been grappling with socioeconomic issues since the democratic dispensation in 1994 (NPC, 2011). As in many other developing countries, economic growth, even when sustained for a period of time, has not translated into equal opportunity and equal access to markets and resources for poor and marginalised groups, perpetuating high inequality levels (see De Mello and Dutz, 2012).

This entrenched situation has precluded inclusive growth. The term ‘inclusive growth’ is often used interchangeably with ‘broad-based’, ‘shared’ or ‘pro-poor...

Mobile money has attracted global attention because of its ability to bring people from the cash-based, ‘unbanked’ economy into modern systems of ‘book-entry money’. This process is commonly referred to in the industry as ‘banking the unbanked’ (Klein and Mayer, 2011). It involves the use of mobile phone technology to make financial transactions. Generally, this allows users to engage in transactions ranging from buying and transferring airtime, to transferring funds and making payments from their mobile devices (ITU, 2011). A ‘traditional’ form of this is where banks have mobile phone applications which allow their customers to interact with their bank...

This chapter analyses the competitiveness and performance of the Zimbabwean poultry industry in the context of trade liberalisation, given that both poultry output and the main inputs (animal feed and breeding stock) are tradeable. Poultry is an important product in Zimbabwe as the main source of protein for consumers. It also has strong links to agriculture through the production of animal feed. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO, 2010) notes the rapid growth of the poultry sector globally over the last decade. Despite the rise in chicken demand over the years as a cheap source of protein, the poultry industry...

In recent years there has been increased attention, once more, on regional integration and its potential contribution to African economic development. However, there are very different emphases and perspectives. On the one hand, regional integration is essentially viewed as removing tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade; in essence, a second-best to unilateral liberalisation. It is also advocated as part of ‘defragmenting Africa’ – overcoming the legacy of colonial borders – adding the reduction (or even removal) of border controls to the agenda of tariff liberalisation. Other perspectives emphasise the constructive measures required for more meaningful and deeper integration, ranging from...