The newly established National Consumer Commission will launch crack-down investigations into three major consumer-driven industries, for which complaints received so far suggest that consumer abuse is rife.
The sectors that the commission will initially target are information and communications technology (ICT); manufacturing and retail; and health care and pharmaceuticals.
The commission has also established a memorandum of understanding with the Competition Commission to revisit and investigate consumer aspects of its work on bank fees and bread price-fixing.
It has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the SA Bureau of Standards for quality testing, and is collaborating with its counterparts in the US and New Zealand to use their expertise in these investigations.
National Consumer Commissioner Mamodupi Mohlala said at the weekend that in the first four days from April 1 when the commission had begun operating, it had received more than 400 complaints.
The majority of complaints were against the City of Johannesburg for its billing crisis, followed by complaints against the country’s three large cellular operators Vodacom, MTN and Cell C with regard to ambiguity of contracts, pricing, faulty new handsets and dropped calls. All three cellular giants said they had not yet received notifications from the commission.
The commission has also received complaints against Telkom, the fixed-line operator partially owned by the government, revolving around installation times, said Mohlala, but declined to elaborate on the issues. Telkom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The commission has not yet received complaints against new fixed-line provider Neotel.
Investigations have already begun. At least one report is expected by August.
The first round of the investigations will be preliminary, with an analysis of the industries and their compliance with the Consumer Protection Act. In-depth investigation will follow if there is reason to.
“We are not looking to victimise one to the exclusion of the other. We want to make consumers’ lives better,” said Mohlala, the former director-general of the Department of Communications.
Pensioners, in particular, have complained that medical aid schemes refused to pay for life-saving medication, that medicines were incorrectly priced and that a member’s medical aid reserve was incorrectly accounted for.
There were also instances where the medical aid scheme would inform the patient that the reserve was depleted three months into the year.
Mohlala said that in health care and pharmaceuticals, the commission would also investigate discriminatory rules such as those also prevalent in insurance schemes that barred people who were HIV-positive.
State-owned and private hospitals and clinics would be scrutinised for cleanliness and running times of dispensaries. Medical claims by traditional healers would also be probed.
Mohlala said only two complaints were received against two fairly upmarket national retail chains about expired goods on shelves. Rural communities largely complained of small, foreign-owned retailers that sold expired foods.
The pharmaceutical industry was accused of commercialising lotions and hair products that contained ingredients that had been banned in countries such as the US, she said.
Stavros Nicolaou, a senior executive at Aspen Pharmacare, said the concerns were considered by industry authorities and were treated on merit.
Recently, the Medicines Control Council asked the industry to remove a weight-loss product found problematic overseas.
“It’s probably the most regulated industry already,” Nicolaou said. He said complementary medicines were an area that probably required investigation rather than “classic pharmaceutical products”.
The commission can impose a penalty of up to R1 million, or 10 percent of turnover, on those found to be contravening the Consumer Protection Act.
Portia Maurice, Vodacom’s chief corporate affairs officer, said the company offered numerous vehicles through which customers could complain.
Mothibi Ramusi, Cell C’s executive head of regulatory affairs, said “there was no harm” in the commission co-ordinating its work with industry authorities, but that they should avoid duplication. - Business Report