If we want to stamp out collusion in the private sector we need to name and shame the culprits.

This was the message of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela as she addressed a Freedom Day seminar hosted by the Competition Commission in Pretoria on Friday.

“If something doesn’t bring you shame or loss of face‚ why would you dispense with it? Business people would rather be guilty of collusion than corruption‚” Madonsela said.

According to the Competition Commission‚ a number of cartels in the construction‚ cement and flour and wheat markets have been exposed in South Africa over the past 15 years‚ and many of the perpetrators see their actions as normal commercial practices.

The commission argues that in some cases this behaviour is corrupt.

“It is impossible to coordinate (or collude) without assistance from the inside‚” commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele said in reference to research conducted by Corruption Watch executive director Dave Lewis on the link between the two practices.

Madonsela said that even though the two are not mutually exclusive‚ their effects are similar and they often overlap.

“Basically the two of them are a betrayal of trust‚ they are criminal in nature and they involve dishonesty‚” she said.

She added that while some corporations may excuse collusive behaviour‚ saying that there were no victims in their schemes‚ there were always victims.

“When there has been price-fixing‚ you can’t say there are no victims. When prices are artificially inflated‚ the economy is distorted and the public suffers.”

The most common overlaps between corruption and collusion referred to the public protector’s office occur in the area of tenders‚ she said.

Research is mounting to prove that when there is coordination between bidders in securing tenders‚ the deal is often supported by a corrupt public official.

But getting rid of corrupt public officials is not going to reduce collusion‚ Madonsela says.

In 2010‚ Madonsela’s office received a complaint of alleged collusion where a man’s home‚ worth R460 000‚ was repossessed and auctioned off for R40 000 because he could not pay a R10 000 bank loan.

The Competition Commission is now investigating a syndicate between auctioneers‚ lawyers and government officials‚ where officials allegedly allow repossessed homes to be sold to each other for prices below market value.

Madonsela said cases like this‚ where a man had lost his home and still owed the bank‚ showed that a culture of corruption has developed in South Africa and that cultural transformation was the key to resolving the problem.

The public also needs to be educated‚ she said.

“The average person on the street doesn’t know what collusion is. They don’t know about the companies that robbed them in the bread cartel.

“[Business] people stole from poor people by fixing the bread price‚ but they have not been shamed.”