THIS is a semi-open letter to Ann Crotty, Samantha Enslin-Payne and Mike Abrahams. During the last half of February and now into March, you have helped inform us about Walmart’s bid to buy Massmart. Thank you, Crotty and Enslin-Payne for your pieces in Business Report and Abrahams for the essay in M&B Business for March 4. I suggest that the Competition Tribunal should be wary of allowing the purchase to go on.
Though we have headquartered the last 10 years here in South Africa, we lived for 70 years in the mid-west of the US. Whatever the complexities of the situation here, let me assure you that across the mid-west in the US the results of Walmart’s entrance into a community have been short-term benefits in food prices, long-term disasters when it comes to decent work, middle class viability and the quality of small town life.
In my home town, the Giant Mart’s advent meant that two independent bakeries and three mom and pop grocery store/meat markets were ultimately forced to close. It was heartbreaking to see the former owner of one of the bakeries working alongside teenagers at the check-out counter of the Mart.
My former students were scattered across the States. Most would question the value of a Walmart presence in the community. A good number reported regional devastation when Walmart decided to close one of its stores and pull out. Small towns were left with junk food outlets at petrol stations. Do we want something like this in South Africa?
Peter Kjeseth
Fish Hoek
Revisit price fixing in South African market
While the article “Airlines pay for price fixing” (Business Report, March 7) was about overseas companies engaged in anti-competitive behaviour, it would be pertinent to once again revisit the issue of price fixing in this country.
While most media coverage of the Competition Commission’s battles with local cartels predictably focuses on the detrimental effects price fixing has on the consumer, I’d like to look at the issue from the perspective of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In a country where at least a quarter of the economically active population is unemployed, it is sinfully unpatriotic for large corporations to be engaging in practices that prevent job-creating SMEs from participating in profitable economic activity.
Price fixing locks out SMEs from distribution chains, keeping prices higher than they should be and employment lower than it could be. Large firms should be using their industry dominance and substantial corporate coffers to develop enterprise development programmes that include SMEs in the supply chain. Experience elsewhere shows that sharing the pie does not shrink it, but in fact increases everyone’s slices over the long term.
Let’s forgo excessive profits in favour of reasonable profits and a healthy country with high employment and low crime.
Pavlo Phitidis
Managing Director: Aurik Business Incubator,
Rosebank, Johannesburg
‘First royal visit to Ireland’ not accurate
Anne Crotty states (March 9) that Queen Elizabeth II of England “will be making the first ever English royal visit to Ireland”. This is not quite correct. Since Henry II of England visited in 1171, there have been eight such visits, not all of them diplomatic. As recently as 2009 Elizabeth II visited the north-east of the country. This visit will be the first of an English monarch to the sovereign independent Republic of Ireland.
Later in her article she refers to “the oppressive influence of the Catholic Church” in Ireland. She seems to forget that the Church is adhered to by the vast majority of Irish people at home and abroad. The clergy are our own brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. They are not foreign, but flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood.
Indeed if it were not for the heroic efforts of these selfless priests, nuns and brothers, who worked for little or nothing, most Irish people including, I presume, Ann herself, would not enjoy the benefit of a good education nor would the republic be a free country today.
BRIAN P KENNEDY
Durban
Food retailers have a field day with prices
The letter from Edward Smith published on March 7 could not have been more accurate. Food retailers such as Shoprite, Woolworths and Pick n Pay are having a field day – R50 for a bag of charcoal, R120 for three razor blades – bring on Walmart and some competition quickly.
Whitey Basson and the likes: the regular price hikes and prices you attempt to impose don’t affect you as you have the hefty bonuses and monthly salary to rely on. Tesco’s UK are cheaper for daily purchases such as ready-cooked meals/light meals even when prices are converted. Retailers in South Africa are blatantly profiteering at the expense of hard pressed consumers and will continue to do so until a formidable competitor enters the market.
Adrian Holt
Eastleigh
Fiddling with forex is a waste of money
Why on earth does the SA Reserve Bank insist on wasting precious funds trying to devalue the rand on forex markets?
The continued rumble of nationalisation in government circles, lack of infrastructure to service mining (see Transnet’s inability to transport sufficient coal for export) and South Africa’s high wages/poor labour productivity are enough to frighten off all but the hardiest new investor. It will lead to a seriously weakened rand.
History reflects very clearly that trying to fiddle with the forex rate is an expensive waste of time and money – the market will always decide on the rand’s true value!
Derek Excell
Kloof,
Durban
Township is township, not black or white
We know that the words “black” and “white” have many subconscious implications (as in black sheep and whiter than white) and this suggests that we should avoid, as much as possible, applying these inappropriate labels to people.
Why is it that in his article on Friday last (Township houses show best price growth – FNB), Roy Cokayne referred to “black townships” five times. When did anyone last see a white township? Yet he correctly referenced “the township index”.
Can I appeal to journalists and editors to question their use of these terms, perhaps asking: “Do I need the term at all?
“If I do, then is there a better word, such as African, that engenders pride in origin rather than reinforcing negative perceptions? If I have to use the term, how can I do that with empathy for those who might consider it derogatory?”
Newspapers can, and should, lead the way to a better and less judgmental use of language – they can be champions for change and transformation.
BB Brown
Freelance writer and editor
South African profit margins seem wider
I heartily concur with the sentiments of Edward Smith in the March 7 issue regarding comments of Whitey Basson on the coming of Walmart to South Africa and its possible importation of cheaper food.
About 27 or 28 years ago a well-known hotel had a British promotion. There were a few British national newspapers, I could not help noticing a reference to South Africa in one of the articles. I do not recall the thrust of this article, but I clearly remember the phrase used by the journalist: “…the greed of the South African businessman which is well known and causes much amusement in the City of London…”
Some 12 years back I heard an American businessman say they wished American business could operate with profit margins at the level of ours. Good luck to Walmart. I am sure that when they entered the British market under the Asda label, they rattled the cages of the likes of Sainsbury’s.
Derek Birch
Cape Town