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The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes the Portfolio Committee for Economic Development’s call for public submissions on the Walmart-Massmart merger. The Competition Tribunal acts independently of Parliament and, as such, public submissions to the Portfolio Committee for Economic Development would have no impact on the Competition Tribunal’s final decision. Furthermore, the Portfolio Committee’s call comes long after the Tribunal’s final decision, and the reasons for the decision, have been made public. The DA does therefore not recognise the value in calling for public submissions, as no tangible outcomes can be obtained from them. These submissions can, at best, only provide an opportunity for people to state their opinions.
The DA recently raised its concerns about the direct intervention by the Economic Development Ministry- during the Tribunal’s assessment of the merger- regarding “public interest” concerns. We questioned whether this was an appropriate use of state resources, given that these concerns fell outside of the Tribunal’s scope of judgment. The Minister of Economic Development should be focused on improving South Africa’s investment climate and jobs growth – and not on issues relating to single mergers that the Competition Tribunal, the merging partners and the affected social partners are adequately equipped to manage independently.
This intervention, followed by the Portfolio Committee’s call for public submissions and reports that the Portfolio Committee took the unprecedented step of requesting a briefing by the Tribunal the day before it issued its reasons for setting the merger conditions, indicate a worrying disregard by the Economic Development Ministry and Portfolio Committee for the legal framework regulating takeovers.
In light of these developments, I have written a letter to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee for Economic Development, Ms E.M. Coleman MP, to request clarity on what the Portfolio Committee aims to achieve with these hearings, how the call for public submissions on this issue falls within parliament’s mandate and why the decision to call for submissions was not discussed by the committee.