Screw the consumer

It is important that people are able to assert their rights, if they are to achieve prosperity in a free society. But this does not mean that any law that claims to help them do this is automatically good. South Africa’s Consumer Protection Act, which comes into force later this year, is a case in point. I’ve read it — the whole long, convoluted thing — and found among a few useful provisions several that are good in intent, but will likely hurt consumers in practice. Here’s my Tuesday column on the subject, published yesterday over at The Daily Maverick.

I missed a trick, however. I should have shredded it, viciously, for sounding like it was written 20 years ago for some foreign market. Mail-order? Catalogue? Who in SA uses those? And what about those newfangled interweb thingies? I hear you can buy stuff over them, though I’m not sure how you’d send a package down a wire.