BONUS - RUSTENBURG - The National Consumer Commission (NCC) has embarked on compliance inspections to ensure that unsafe and expired goods are removed from supermarket shelves.
The NCC has joined forces with the Departments of Labour, Health and Home Affairs, South African Police Services, Environmental Health Practitioners, and Waste Management in various municipalities.
In areas where retailers have already been inspected, there was widespread non-compliance - especially of goods that have passed their sell-by, use-by or best before dates.
The non-compliant goods were duly removed from the shelves and confiscated (including baby food, sweets, noodles, tinned foodstuff, juices, and other consumables). These items had the potential of compromising health of consumers.
There is an equally reprehensible practise that the inspection uncovered, which is retention of the goods past date markings and continuing to sell them to consumers at “discount prices”. The NCC maintains that these suppliers are self-serving and that no “discount” is worth the health or well-being of consumers.
The other common practice discovered is suppliers that do not display the prices of goods, making it difficult for consumers to know the price beforehand to exercise their right to choose. Prices must be adequately displayed, expressed in the currency of the country, affixed to, written, printed, stamped, located upon, or applied to the goods.
The team also discovered that suppliers do not issue sales records/receipts or that their sales records/receipts are not consistent with the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), which must show the name of the supplier or registered business name, VAT number (if any), address of the premises, date on which the transaction occurred, name and description of any goods or services supplied, unit price of the goods, quantity, total price before any applicable taxes, and total of the transaction, including applicable taxes.
The NCC’s Acting Commissioner, Mr Hardin Ratshisusu, said "failure to issue sales records deprives the consumer of their right to return the goods in a case of a product failure where quality is compromised. We want to remind suppliers to comply with the provisions of the CPA. The NCC will continue with its efforts to ensure a fair marketplace by taking non-compliant suppliers to task."
