South Africa: Fighting cartels through food security

The Children’s Resources Centre, Black Sash, COSATU (Western Cape), the National Consumer Forum and five individual bread consumers have launched the second class action ever undertaken in South Africa. They are seeking damages for consumers to recoup financial losses from bread producers over the increase of bread prices. 'The outcome of the investigations by the Competition Authorities, upon which the merits of our case are based, confirmed what we already suspected and feared: that the increase on bread prices was not some unfortunate occurrence caused by unpredictable weather patterns or the fluctuating price of fuel. Instead, the increase was the result of a series of immoral decisions by companies less concerned about the livelihoods of consumers than about squeezing out competitors, breaking the law, and making profit.'