Deputy Editor
The Competition Commission has urged the government to learn from the mistakes of previous privatisation efforts in which certain industries merely became private sector monopolies, leaving the economy highly concentrated.
The commission’s second “Economy Concentration Tracker” report, published on Tuesday, says bringing private sector players into the energy and logistics sectors — dominated by Eskom and Transnet — will help to decrease concentration.
The report, which covers the period 2017-2021, notes the extreme concentration of ownership in electric power generation, transmission, and distribution as well as railways.
“Reforms to energy and logistics where state monopolies persist provide the best means to inject competition and benefit from private investment, with support from competition law,” it states.
