Tag: monopoly

Gargantuan and tyrannical unions like the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU), and National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) have leveraged their power, numbers, money, and capacity to threaten violence, and in so doing hold the economy hostage.

As South Africa’s energy sector continues to evolve, understanding the changes in regulations, contracts, and market dynamics is crucial. The restructuring of South Africa’s regulatory framework, especially within the energy sector is critical given the present crisis the country is in. Unbundling, where different parts of the energy sector are separated, amounts to far more than just paperwork.

While the President has signed the National Health Insurance (NHI) into law, the bean counters at National Treasury have yet to start looking for their excel sheets needed to ensure the NHI is fully costed. The first reason is due to the confusion of objective versus political ideology. The NHI has been touted as introducing “universal healthcare coverage” (UHC).

From veteran Amazon reporter for The Wall Street Journal, The Everything War is the first untold, devastating exposé of Amazon's endless strategic greed, its pursuit of total domination, by any means necessary, and the growing efforts to stop it.

We have released a South Africa’s anti-growth strategy report. The report argues that the slow economic growth of the last 15 years is the result of bad policy choices, a catastrophic decline in government performance and a devastating lack of leadership. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the South African government does not have a growth strategy. If anything, it has an anti-growth strategy.

Every South African should care about open banking. It would give consumers more control over their financial data and empower them to use the banking services that best meet their needs. Open banking promises to reinvent the way consumers view and interact with financial products and services.

Government’s conduct over the last century and more has led to the situation South Africa finds itself in today as regards the provision of electricity. Tracing a series of legislative and regulatory interventions in the electricity market, we can see how this came to be.

Eskom, as a state-owned monopoly, with centrally controlled oversight and direction, is not the best structure for the supply of electricity in South Africa, a critical energy source without which no nation can grow and prosper. Better structures are those that have evolved under competitive circumstances in the European Union, United States, and small, forward-looking countries such as New Zealand.

The Department of Minerals Resources and Energy (DMRE) has launched its plan for The South African liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) market. It aims to grow the retail bottled gas market to reduce the pressure on electricity and to promote the domestic use of a healthier fuel, especially for heating and cooking.

Proposed government interference in the pay TV market is a violation of the freedom of contract, which is not only critical in the commercial world, but a fundamental guarantee of individual and community autonomy from the dictates of third parties.