The Competition Commission wants to start imposing further racial quotas as a means to transform agriculture, one of the few remaining sectors in South Africa that are still successful.
Mr Tembinkosi Bonakele, chairperson of the Commission, stated in a report that agricultural corporations uphold economic apartheid and that he will see to it that the application of racial quotas to the value chain of this sector is intensified by affecting the issuing of licences to service providers.
This threat does not only apply to the agricultural sector, but also sets alarm bells ringing for the entire free-market system in South Africa.
After conducting a demographic survey of economic concentration, the Commission submitted a report of 408 pages to the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel, last week.
Among the report’s many recommendations is a serious plea for urgent intervention in the agricultural value chain.
The ANC government's racial obsession and abuse of the Commission to interfere in the free-market system to further racially motivated objectives will not pass the test of healthy business practices.
Instead, well-established, and successful role players in the agricultural industry's value chain will start to reduce their investments in South Africa and consequently, vital job opportunities will be lost.
Smaller role players that operate below the minimum sustainable scale of the economy will, as a direct result, become an even bigger burden on the government and taxpayers.
The ANC government's constant obsession with race makes absolutely no contribution to economic growth, on the contrary, it is creating an even greater dependence on the state and leads to economic decline.
It is, furthermore, unacceptable that Bonakele, who is a mere official in the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, is making racially driven political statements of this nature.
The FF Plus will confront Minister Patel about this when the report is tabled in the parliamentary Portfolio Committee early next year.
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