Mr Speaker, how much does our government in general, and Minister Rob Davies in particular, really protect our consumers? For two years I have been requesting the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, the hon Joan Fubbs, to place on the agenda of our committee public hearings to receive the grievances of a multitude of consumers against our banks, insurance companies and cellular communications companies.
It seems that these three groups of companies are above any type of accountability. The hon Fubbs and the ANC management team in that committee have, thus far, refused to hold these companies accountable.
I have been the victim of extortion by Vodacom, which forced me to pay outrageous data-roaming charges, which it could not even begin to explain or document. My wife has been the victim of an aggressive marketing scheme by Cell C which borders on fraud. I have experienced first-hand the incompetence of the Insurance Ombudsman, as well as the collusion between OUTsurance and First National Bank.
If I, as a Member of Parliament, could not find any redress from their customer services, ordinary citizens are left with no help. We have allowed banks and insurance companies to shield themselves with their own ombudsmen whom they pay and control.
Next week we will be launching a website called daylightrobbery.org and we invite our citizens, as well as Members of Parliament, to populate it with their own horror stories. We commit ourselves to collating these stories and personally submitting them to the hon Fubbs and the hon Davies. We hope that they may finally choose to listen to the voices of the South African people and stop protecting those who, through effective racketeering, are imposing on all of us the world's highest costs for banking, insurance and telecommunications, with very little redress to be found in the Consumer Protection Act. Thank you.