Minister Patel criticised for not allowing unfettered e-commerce to operate

Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel File picture: African News Agency (ANA)

Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel File picture: African News Agency (ANA)

Published Apr 28, 2020

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JOHANNESBURG - Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel has been criticised for his decision to turn down unfettered e-commerce.

Patel on Saturday turned down requests by online traders to allow unfettered e-commerce in South Africa, saying doing so would be seen to be “unfair competition”.

“If we open up any one category, let’s say e-commerce, unavoidably there’s enormous pressure to do the same for physical stores, for spaza shops, for informal traders, so there is fair competition,” Patel said.

South Africa has been under a national lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 since March 26, with the government last week announcing the gradual reopening of the economy.

Laurian Venter, director at an online retailer, OneDayOnly.co.za said today  (Tuesday) that stopping an industry that can benefit South Africans because it is felt to be “anti-competitive”  did not make sense. 

“There are many industries that are opening up in Level 4 that could be considered unfair but are necessary. We need to open up areas of the economy that can be considered safe. In addition, many brick and mortar retailers have e-commerce sites in place and those that don’t have the liberty to implement this,” Venter said.

Venter said e-commerce was also acting as a very important stimulant to keeping the economy going by being an outlet for many small companies that had lost their shops.

“In our opinion, we should be discouraging people from shopping in supermarkets and retail shops. We strongly feel that extending the products that can be delivered will only benefit customers and slowly wake up the South African economy,”  said Venter.

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