Consumer Protection Act: DA working to impose time limit on municipal exemption

Yesterday I met with the Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, to raise my concerns about the open-ended exemption of low- and medium- capacity municipalities from the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA).

The Minister assured me that he will convey to the Ministry of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs my recommendation that a time-limit be imposed for the exemption. I look forward to action on this front in the coming months.

The new CPA helps to ensure that South African consumers get the service they pay for by protecting their rights and giving them a mechanism to enforce those rights through the newly established Consumer Commission.

The Act came into effect in March this year, but at that time the Minister of Trade and Industry published a notice that deferred the application of the Act to all low- and medium-capacity municipalities following a request from the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs to do so.

While such a deferral was allowed in terms of the new law, and the Democratic Alliance (DA) understands the motivation behind a temporary deferral- to allow the Consumer Commission to develop sufficient capacity to deal with complaints associated with all municipalities, the DA does not believe that such a deferral should be open-ended.

Without an explicit time-frame for the deferral, the majority of municipalities will not have a sufficient incentive to improve their service levels. The vast majority of South Africa's 283 municipalities are classified as low- and medium- capacity, meaning that citizens in those municipal areas are currently unable to approach the Consumer Commission to enforce their rights in the provision water, electricity, refuse removal, vehicle licensing and other services that should be provided by their municipality.

I am pleased, therefore, that Minister Davies has committed to engaging with the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs to work towards a time-limit for the exemption. I wish the Ministers well with this initiative and look forward to the day when all South African consumers will have all of their rights protected - regardless of whether a service is provided by the private sector or public sector.

Statement issued by Tim Harris MP, DA Shadow Minister of Trade and Industry, June 15 2011

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter