The President has appointed, for a five-year period, Prof. Liberty Mncube as the Deputy Chairperson of the Competition Tribunal (“Tribunal”) and re-appointed Prof. Imraan Valodia for another five years as a part-time member. Both these appointments are effective from 01 February 2023.
“I am excited that we will continue to have Prof. Mncube and Prof. Valodia as Tribunal members,” Tribunal Chairperson, Ms. Mondo Mazwai said. “Economic analysis plays a central role in nearly every significant competition case, even when the ultimate decision may turn on other sources of evidence. Being able to draw from the expertise and insights of Professors Mncube and Valodia will continue to enrich our functions as we adjudicate for competitive and inclusive markets.”
Prof. Mncube has been an acting part-time member of the Tribunal since January 2022. He is also an associate professor at the School of Economics and Finance at the University of Witwatersrand (“Wits”). He is a former Chief Economist of the Competition Commission (“Commission”). Prof. Mncube has extensive experience in providing expert economic testimony in several important competition cases before the Tribunal, for the Commission and private parties. At Wits his teaching, supervision and research focuses on industrial organization, competition economics and competition policy. His scholarship on competition economics and competition policy has been published in local and international journals. Prof. Mncube has the honour of serving as a Member of President Cyril Ramaphosa's Presidential Economic Advisory Council (appointed in October 2019). He also served as a Member of Minister Ebrahim Patel’s Ministerial Advisory Panel tasked with developing Draft Amendments to the Competition Act which ultimately led to the Competition Amendment Act 18 of 2018. Prof. Mncube holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Kwazulu-Natal.
Prof. Valodia has been a part-time member of the Tribunal for the past five years. He is Professor of Economics, Pro Vice-Chancellor: Climate, Sustainability and Inequality, and Director of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at Wits. His research interests include inequality, climate justice, competition policy, employment, the informal economy, gender and economic policy, and industrial development. In August 2016, Prof. Valodia was appointed by (then) Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to chair the Advisory Panel on the National Minimum Wage. This led to the introduction of a National Minimum Wage in South Africa. In early 2018, he was appointed to a Panel to advise the Minister of Economic Development on amendments to the Competition Act. More recently, he was appointed by the Minister of Finance to a Panel of Experts to advise the Minister on Value-Added Taxes. In late 2019, Prof. Valodia was appointed by President Ramaphosa to the Presidential Economic Advisory Council. He is recognised nationally and internationally for his research expertise in economic development. Prof. Valodia holds a PhD in Economics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
The Tribunal is a specialist independent adjudicative body with cross-disciplinary expertise in law, and economics, whose function is to hear and decide cases involving mergers and prohibited practices (including anti-competitive agreements between competitors (cartels) or vertical agreements between customers and their suppliers and abuse of dominance cases).
Issued by:
Gillian de Gouveia, Communications Manager
On behalf of the Competition Tribunal of South Africa
<Cell: 27 (0) 82 410 1195
E-Mail: GillianD@comptrib.co.za
Twitter: @comptrib
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