MIDRAND Sept 22 Sapa

The government will be unrelenting in dealing with suppliers who
colluded on food prices, deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe said on
Tuesday.

"It is unacceptable that food prices should be artificially
inflated through the collusive scheming among the major suppliers,
resulting in more misery for the poor," Motlanthe said at the
Congress of SA Trade Union's 10th national congress at Gallagher
Estate in Midrand.

"The state will be and is unrelenting in dealing with these
sorts of crimes," he told delegates.

The competition commission was already prosecuting those
allegedly involved in colluding in the bread industry.

Collusion in the maize or milling sector was being referred to
the Competition Tribunal for prosecution.

The case against the dairy industry was already before the
tribunal with one case before the tribunal on the poultry sector
and a wider investigation underway.

An investigation was beginning into the supermarket sector, with
the fats and oils sector also being probed, Motlanthe said.

A settlement had been reached with Sasol on fertiliser, and
others were being prosecuted, he said.

Motlanthe told the congress it was meeting during a "deep global
recession", which exacerbated the difficulties already facing the
country.

He said that while the country's financial sector remained
relatively strong in the face of the global meltdown, employment
had dipped by two percent in the second quarter of the year.

Government revenue had declined and the budget deficit was set
to rise from one percent of the gross domestic product to about
eight percent of GDP in this fiscal year.

"Our only achilles heel being the massive negative balance of
trade and payment," he said.

"We also need to bear in mind that we were using capital inflows
to finance our investments and that needs to change."

He spelled out the country's framework response to the crisis.
Motlanthe, quoting Oliver Tambo, called for unity among South
Africans.

"The unity of our people remains our strategic goal.

"Even as we respond to the ravages of the impact of recession we
must never lose sight of this important goal," he said.



Source : Sapa /nm/cl
Date : 22 Sep 2009 11:18 OrigID : LP150429