Why it has taken so long for the Department of Trade and Industry, under which the consumer protection office falls, to take action, is beyond me because a lot of these practices are clearly as bent as a rusted safety pin and have been going on for decades now.
Something else I find quite remarkable is that during 2004/2005 the consumer protection office only received 788 complaints about pyramid, inertia, multiplication and all sorts of other forms of dodgy and downright dastardly selling... Because one just has to keep one's ears open at any gathering of people of all socio economic groups and tales of woe about some rip-off or other abound with such regularity that there can no doubt that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of South Africans have fallen prey to these scams.
All of which means that the Office of Consumer Protection needs to do a better job at communicating its existence.
The problem of course is that very little keeps marketers down for long and there is no doubt that many of these practices now curtailed by having been labeled 'illegal', will rise up from the ashes in some other shape or form or simply continue on the basis that the vast majority of consumers who get stung by these scams don't bother to lay official complaints either, because they don't know where to do it or because of straightforward apathy.
So, while it's a step in the right direction to declare these practices unlawful, the problem is not going to go away if that's all that happens!
Perhaps its time to institute a law such as that embodied years ago in the liquor act - which simply put, meant that if a bottle store wished to sell booze on credit and subsequently did not get paid - then it was forbidden to sue for payment.
Maybe that's the way to stop at least some of these scams?
South Africa's average consumer is still very naive, gullible and unaware of avenues of recourse. This action from the Office of Consumer Protection is a good start, but it really is only a start.
