‘Our biggest challenge at the moment is to hear cases more quickly.’

ALEC HOGG: Norman Manoim is with us in the studio, the man who is taking over from Dave Lewis as the chair of the  Competition Tribunal. Norman, there is a perception that the tribunal has got increasingly aggressive in the most recent time. Now, you've been on the tribunal since 1999, you're a well-known attorney. As David reminded me earlier, you used to be the managing partner of one of the leading firms of attorneys in South Africa before joining the tribunal. I guess under your chairmanship it isn't going to get any easier for people who are breaking competition law.

NORMAN MANOIM: Well, our job is not to make it easier for people who are breaking the law, so we'll carry on business as usual. I've been on the tribunal for 10 years, serving under Dave's leadership. So hopefully we'll be carrying on in the same way that he's run the show before.

ALEC HOGG: What is the one single highlight in those ten years?

NORMAN MANOIM: I'm not sure there has been any single highlight. I think there have been some important decisions we've made. For instance in mergers there was the JD/Ellerines merger which we prohibited, there was the Sasol/Engen merger that was very important as well. For me personally in the prohibitive practice case, there was a case involving complaints against SAA about its travel-agent scheme. So those are some of the important cases.

ALEC HOGG: They are still trying to recover from that big fine that you levied. Have they paid it? Was it R500m?

NORMAN MANOIM: No, it wasn't as high as that. But there were one or two other cases in which they were fined by the commission. They settled with them. As far as we know, they have paid.

ALEC HOGG: So SAA can now go ahead as a normal airline hopefully in future - not to worry about those kind of issues.

NORMAN MANOIM: There is yet another case that is actually before us at the moment for a later period involving SAA, and my colleagues on another panel are deciding that matter. So we are awaiting their decision.

ALEC HOGG: Normal, something like this is work in progress - with the fact that Dave is handing over the ball to you after you have been there for ten years, one would presume there isn't going to be too much change.

NORMAN MANOIM: No, we very much have continuity, because we have 11 tribunal members. We sit and hear cases in panels of three, and eight out of our 11 tribunal members are the same people who served when Dave was the chair. So there is continuity. But there is also a bit of new blood as well in the institution which is also a good thing.

ALEC HOGG: Are you gathering momentum now?

NORMAN MANOIM: I think we are gathering momentum in the sense that we are getting more experience in running the procedures in the institution, feeling how it should work. It's a long learning curve to get a thing like this going and making sure it works. Our biggest challenge at the moment is to hear cases more quickly. They are taking too long to get from where a complaint is lodged to finality. It doesn't matter whether someone is eventually going to be found guilty or not or acquitted. If cases are taking too long it's got an adverse effect on the market.

ALEC HOGG: We get an impression, David and I, that it seems as thought the economy is just fraught with competition abuses. Hardly a week goes buy that there isn't another disclosure from the Competition Commission who sit before you on some abuse or other. Just in the last month we've had the cellphone companies now coming under some scrutiny, and of course the construction industry as well.

NORMAN MANOIM: Look, I think there are far more of these practices out there than we would have thought several years ago. One of the big things that I think has changed has been this commission's leniency policy which affects cartels, which basically means the first guy in the room who squeals gets off as long as he tells on the others. That has brought a whole lot of new cases through. But just to also give another perspective, that doesn't mean that every case that is being investigated is going to find a conviction at the end of the day. There may be people who have got an explanation for what they are doing and will get off.

ALEC HOGG: Have you got  a long list of abuses that you still have to get around to investigating?

NORMAN MANOIM: Well, we've got a fair number of cases, but quite a lot of these cases actually get settled at commission level, and it's just a matter for us to supervise a consent order.

ALEC HOGG: What does that mean - get settled at commission level?

NORMAN MANOIM: It means that people enter a plea and do a plea bargain - to give the criminal law analogy. In other words they say: "Look, we'll plead guilty and we'll agree to this remedy." And it's then taken to us to see is this a fair remedy in those circumstances. That obviates the need for going to trial. It means the matter can be settled within a morning.

ALEC HOGG: In other words, if a business is naughty it comes forward and says, "Sorry, here's the money and we promise not to do it again"?

NORMAN MANOIM: Yes, absolutely.

ALEC HOGG: Norman Manoim  is the new chair of the Competition Tribunal.

• Subscribe to a daily email of transcripts from Moneyweb Radio - click here

The SAfm Market Update with Moneyweb is broadcast on SAfm 104-107fm, weekdays at 18:00 to 18:30.

COMMENTS

  responses to this article

View disclaimer

ADD YOUR COMMENT

Name:
Surname:
Email:
Subject:
Comment:

if (theForm['attribute_1327'].value == '' || theForm['attribute_1327'].value == '0') { ccs.ugc.capture309370.addValidationError(309370,'Comment:',1327, 'is mandatory') };

View disclaimer