Madam Deputy Speaker, thank you to the Minister for giving us a piece of good news from the tip of the iceberg. I think, however, that attention should be given to dealing with the rest of the iceberg. South Africa is still a country characterised by cartels and monopolies, and is still flying on the autopilot left by the National Party. If we are serious about dealing with these problems we cannot rely on the Competition Commission alone. We must look at amending the law to introduce private actions, triple damages and a strong motivation for private companies to take on and break monopolies.
They are all over the place. The entire distribution of goods and services in this country is a cartel; so are the fertiliser and insurance sectors, the banks, the petrol and tyre industry, electricity and the other utilities and the ports and harbours. Even the IDC itself is becoming an industrial conglomerate with a very anticompetitive effect in its lending practices. We received submissions in one of our committees on this matter.
Again, with regard to the issue of tariff barriers and what type of competitive effect they have, we are facing a situation where the South African marketplace could soon become a putrid pond within which there is insufficient international competition to ensure proper pricing.
There are foundational problems, structural problems for market dynamics and competition dynamics, which cannot be addressed exclusively through the sluggish, lengthy processes of the Competition Commission. We need more effective government action, especially to eliminate the many areas in which anticompetitive practices are entrenched in existing legislation and regulations.
We must enable the private sector to sue whenever it is necessary and be rewarded for its capacity to sue and break monopolies. We need to open up the market to international competition so that we stop paying twice as much for goods sold internationally. Thank you very much.