The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) warmly welcomes the Competition Commission’s application to the Competition Tribunal for revocation of the conditional approval of the merger between Premier Group Limited and RFG Holdings Limited. We commend the Commission for acting swiftly and decisively to defend the integrity of South Africa’s regulatory system.

The application follows the Commission’s completion of its investigation into Premier’s decision to close its canning operation in Tulbagh, retrench its factory workers, and destroy the livelihoods of farmers, farm workers, other suppliers, dependent businesses, and the rural communities that have relied on this factory for their survival.

During the merger proceedings, Premier represented to the Competition Commission and the Competition Tribunal that it did not contemplate closing any manufacturing facilities. This was despite being asked directly by the Commission whether such a prospect was under consideration, and despite being asked by COSATU’s affiliate, the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU), to commit formally to keeping those facilities open. The Commission’s investigation has now found that those representations were not true.

The Competition Commission is right to act. The Competition Act gives our regulators the power to revoke a merger approval where a transaction was approved on the basis of misleading or incomplete information.

Revocation is a major and rare milestone in South African competition policy. We now await the Tribunal’s decision. Should the Tribunal agree to revoke the merger, we believe this scandal will be regarded in the same light as Steinhoff and similar corporate disasters. Company shareholders and investors should be asking serious questions.

The Commission has demonstrated that the merger-control process, when properly resourced and enforced, can be a genuine instrument of economic justice.

As COSATU, we remain committed to defending the workers of Tulbagh, Saron, Gouda, Wolseley, Ceres and Hermon and the surrounding communities who have depended on this canning factory for decades.

COSATU salutes our determined and quick-acting affiliate, SACTWU, which lodged the complaint that triggered this investigation. For more than two decades, SACTWU has been at the leading edge of organised labour’s engagement with mergers and acquisitions – identifying risks for workers and securing meaningful protections across nearly 100 transactions involving its members.

SACTWU has repeatedly demonstrated that by rigorously using the powers and tools of competition law, ordinary trade unionists can hold their own against high-flying corporate lawyers and powerful companies, and achieve real justice.

We also salute our affiliate AFADWU, which sought an interdict in the Labour Court in an effort to prevent the loss of jobs at the Tulbagh factory.

Issued by COSATU.

For further comment please contact COSATU Western Cape Provincial

Secretary Malvern De Bruyn at 060 977 9027 or COSATU Deputy

Parliamentary Coordinator Tony Ehrenreich at 082 773 3194.