Millions of South Africans continue to fall victim to shameful business practices every day.
I was thrilled to hear advocate Fati Manamela, chief director of Gauteng Consumer Affairs, slam those provincial governments which haven't got their act together to get consumer courts up and running for the protection of their people.
The driving force behind the establishment of the Gauteng consumer court several years ago, Manamela said the only other consumer courts currently functioning in the country were in Free State and Limpopo. He was speaking at the Department of Trade and Industry's two-day consumer protection law conference in Midrand last week, where the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act - to become effective in October - were the main focus.
Each province has a provincial consumer affairs office responsible for dealing with consumer complaints and staging awareness campaigns, and legislation provides for the establishment of a consumer protector and a consumer court, which is effectively a tribunal with the power to adjudicate on unfair business practices.
In provinces with no consumer courts, when those investigating consumer complaints in the consumer affairs divisions are faced with a company's refusal to respond or act within the law, they have no choice but to close the file. They don't have a next step.
And why not? Manamela said both a lack of capacity and expertise in those provinces as well as a lack of what he termed "political support" for the consumer protection initiatives were to blame.
"Where is consumer protection on those provincial governments' list of priorities?" he asked.
Excellent question. And certainly the political heads in charge of consumer affairs in the provinces without consumer courts were conspicuous by their absence at the conference.
What an indictment.
Here's the thing. South Africans may be politically emancipated after a long struggle, but millions continue to fall victim to shameful business practices every day. It's time consumer protection shot to the top of the provincial governments' list of priorities, and it's time we consumers let them know this.
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