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Cape Town – The African National Congress (ANC) has lashed out at big businesses for raising barriers to entry for new participants in its fourth National General Council (NGC) discussion document, released on Monday.
The ANC said monopolies (companies who have complete control in a sector) and oligopolies (where a few companies dominate a sector) dominated strategic value-chains.
“Tight knit insiders raise barriers to entry for new participants including black owned and managed firms, and lobby to protect their position through rules and regulations that favour incumbents,” the ruling party said in a section on economic transformation.
“These have served to stifle the development of downstream, labour-intensive industries, small and medium-sized enterprises, cooperatives and black-owned firms.”
The ANC will hold its NGC from 9 to 12 October 2015 at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, where it will assess progress and challenges regarding its previous conference resolutions.
It said the economy continues to be dominated by monopolies and oligopolies in strategic value-chains.
“Monopoly and cartel pricing directly undermines the growth of the economy by increasing prices of key products for downstream industry and those that are essential for low income consumers,” it said.
Stronger steps need to be taken to address anti-competitive behaviour through competition enforcement, regulation and complementary policy measures, the ANC explains.
“The ANC must mobilise all progressive and patriotic businesspersons to disassociate themselves from acts of anti-competitive behaviour, collusion and corruption in pursuit of inclusive economic growth that benefits South Africans as a whole.”
