Earlier this week, hundreds of protesters descended on the richest square mile in Africa (Sandton) and brought lunchtime traffic to a halt to highlight the economic impact of illicit trade and unfair trading practices.
Image supplied
The peaceful protest march was organised by Proudly South African as part of the 14th edition of the Buy Local Summit & Expo, the premier local procurement event, where the impact of illicit trade, unfair and illegal trade practices was one of the focal points in this year’s flagship event.
The protesters included representatives from the industries most affected by unfair trade practises and illicit trade, namely the tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, fuel, food, and wildlife industries, including organised labour.
The protest march sought to raise and heighten awareness about the far-reaching negative impact of illicit trade that has infiltrated many sectors of the economy, threatens jobs, undermines public safety and national security.
The protest march also sought to highlight the adverse impact of unfair trade practices such as dumping, smuggling, counterfeit goods and under-invoicing, which undercuts local producers and entrepreneurs, cripples the manufacturing capabilities of local suppliers and skews markets.
Image supplied
These marchers handed over a memorandum of demands to Makhukhu Mampuru, the executive director of the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).
In the memorandum, the protesters highlighted the devastating impact of illicit trade and unfair trade practises and outlined practical interventions that should be implemented to curb this scourge, which encumbers economic growth and job creation.
The protesters called for the acceleration of the implementation of the Illicit Economy Disruption Programme, the strengthening of Nedlac’s newly established Illicit Economy Task Team, the ramping up of capacity, skills, and resources of all law enforcement agencies at national, provincial, and local levels, and across all touch points.
“The prevalence of illicit trade undermines national security, fuels the growth of criminal networks and threatens much-needed jobs. Similarly, unfair trade practices also have a significant economic impact that widens social inequality and economic instability, distorts the markets, and creates imbalances where one party gains an undue advantage at the expense of another. These twin practices of illicit trade and unfair trade practices exacerbate the challenges that we have of unemployment, inequality and poverty and undermine efforts of industrialisation and economic growth,” said Proudly South African chief executive officer, Eustace Mashimbye.
The memorandum also made the following recommendations:
- Pro-active measures by trade-related agencies involved in combating illicit trade, illegal and unfair trade practices, such as ITAC, aimed at ensuring that these practices can be curbed.
- Increased enforcement, presence, visibility and capacity of the Border Management Authority and SARS at all ports of entry and at customs;
- Deploy the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), SAPS and various metro officers along transit routes to proactively intercept and detect illicit trade activities;
- Capacitate the SAPS with personnel with the requisite technical skills, supported by crime intelligence, to conduct thorough investigations and gather evidence that ensures prosecutable cases;
- Ensure that the National Prosecuting Authority and its sister judiciary arms have sufficient skilled personnel to build compelling cases that can secure successful convictions of those involved in illicit trade;
- Adopt digital technology platforms such as the GS1 Discovery app, which allows supply chain visibility and traces the travels of select products from source to consumer. This digital tool will serve as a digital monitoring system that law enforcement can utilise to enhance transparency and traceability across the affected value chains.
- The GS1 app also promotes the adoption of global identification standards, which allows every product to be uniquely identified and connected to a reliable database which houses information about its origin. When products can be uniquely identified and linked to this data, it becomes easier for businesses, authorities and digital platforms to monitor markets more effectively.
- The adoption, capacitation and promotion of the Illicit Trade Hotline by all government and all social partners, which will give members of the public the platform to report incidents or share intelligence on suspected activities of illicit trade safely and anonymously.
The protest march comes hot on the heels of announcements by several companies, including BAT, of their plans to scale down their local operations due to the impact of illicit trade.
SAB and the pharmaceutical sector have also lamented the explosive growth of illicit alcohol and medication, while the sugar, fashion and textile, poultry, consumer goods, and fuels industry also bemoan a massive increase in cheap imports and smuggling.
