In The Fight Against Anti-Competitive Behaviour

While the recent forex scandal involving over a dozen banks is one of the most prominent cases the Competition Commission has dealt with recently, the body’s top man, Tembinkosi Bonakele, also has his hands full with a variety of other issues.

- Lloyd Gedye

I don’t think any [other] developing country has been able to do this,” says Competition Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele proudly over the phone from the commission’s Pretoria office. He is talking to finweek about the recently announced prosecution of 18 local and international banks, accused in the forex scandal.

“With this case, we have joined the elite competition enforcers in the world,” he states. “It’s good for us as a competition authority, our team and the country.”

Bonakele says the commission worked very hard on the case, adding: “It was not an easy investigation, it was painstaking.”

When finweek asks him how he reacted to private sector players and politicians questioning the independence of the commission or the timing of the announcement of the prosecution, he says he just shrugged it off.

“Ultimately the truth will come out. You can’t play games with these kinds of cases. We treated it like any other prosecution,” he explains. “Nobody is treated special.”

Bonakele admits to being surprised by the scale of the political and public reaction to the case and the media coverage it garnered. “The commission doesn’t refer cases without evidence,” he explains. “We are quite keen for the case to be heard and be heard soon. That being said, we are more than happy to engage with the banks, we want this case resolved as soon as possible.”

A distinguished career

A veteran of competition law, Bonakele has been with the commission for 10 years and was appointed to head the commission in 2014, after serving as deputy commissioner since 2008. He established the commission’s cartel division and was active in high profile cases like those involving the bread cartel and the construction cartel.