Speaker 1: E commerce one of the big stories of the last
Speaker 1: ten years, and new research this week suggesting a market
Speaker 1: worth around nine hundred billion rand is lying untapped in
Speaker 1: our townships. It could be tapped by e commerce, essentially
Speaker 1: suggesting that a little bit of focused investment would unlock
Speaker 1: this economy. Machetta Rakaba is a senior researcher for political
Speaker 1: economy at the Mapuankubwa Institute for Strategic Reflection. They did
Speaker 1: this survey or this report rather, it was compiled for
Speaker 1: the e Commerce Forum South Africa. Majetta, good evening. You
Speaker 1: suggest our e commerce market's actually grown a lot more
Speaker 1: quickly than some other markets. I mean it has been
Speaker 1: dramatic change quite.
Speaker 2: Quickly here, listeners. Yeah, of course, I mean post COVID
Speaker 2: nineteen what you've seen the e commerce growth in the
Speaker 2: country have been more than double tchep. But what actually
Speaker 2: suggesting there is that given the level of maturity the
Speaker 2: e commerce majority system that Salfrey guy has managed to
Speaker 2: build ahead of the countries like you Brazils and Indias
Speaker 2: of this world, which are quite bigger economists than ours,
Speaker 2: we think that we're actually losing on the dividends or
Speaker 2: that comes with that ecosystem that we have already managed
Speaker 2: to better. So that's what they actually they reflect is
Speaker 2: sugistic here that we could set into some of those
Speaker 2: opportunities in the in the in the townships, but also
Speaker 2: making sure that in some of the ecummos spends that
Speaker 2: South African are taking outside of the country into the
Speaker 2: so that we'll bring it back into their culture and
Speaker 2: in that way we'll be able to grow the current
Speaker 2: ten percent e commence retail things to total sils to
Speaker 2: maybe about twenty so that it's more empowered them with
Speaker 2: the rest of the world.
Speaker 1: What do we change, I mean, how does the industry
Speaker 1: change to sort of you know, tap that.
Speaker 2: So we we we're looking at a number of interventions
Speaker 2: which could be either regulated or policy interventions. So at
Speaker 2: first we think that there's quite a number of you
Speaker 2: there's a lot of regulator fragmentations and that kind of
Speaker 2: holding back the growth that they equal the EQUMMACE system
Speaker 2: can go. And we think by coordinating and harnessing those regulations,
Speaker 2: that's one area where we think we think growth will come.
Speaker 2: We also think we also need some kind of coordination
Speaker 2: at the level of the authorities, especially because the regulations
Speaker 2: that are governing ecummas are quite extensive and they're not
Speaker 2: sitting within one custodiam, so you need almost like somebody
Speaker 2: or an authority which can coordinate those regulations and so
Speaker 2: that whatever change is required to be made can be
Speaker 2: made as thick as possible. And we're also suggesting that
Speaker 2: there could be some send send boxes what we call
Speaker 2: regulator send boxes, so these are this is a system
Speaker 2: that enables the e commerce players to experiment with new
Speaker 2: forms of businesses, new models of businesses still a certainly
Speaker 2: and combined by the strict regulations so that they can
Speaker 2: still do businesses without a fatly comply with the regulation
Speaker 2: for the operating within the defend boxes and as and
Speaker 2: when we find the right ways to change and we
Speaker 2: can change the regulation. Lastly, it's just to focus on
Speaker 2: some of the legislations like your like your Electronics Act
Speaker 2: and Communications Act, the way we think that the issues
Speaker 2: around for vereinity data for a varielity that we can change.
Speaker 2: Lastly is just about how we protect some of the
Speaker 2: South African ECONMOCE players against some of the global dominant.
Speaker 1: So I mean we we all know the dominant players
Speaker 1: and Amazon dot dot today has been live for a
Speaker 1: little while now, but we also have a dominant South
Speaker 1: African player. I mean, do we need to sort of
Speaker 1: open up the open up the South African space a
Speaker 1: little bit?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and and greatly. That's what they'll put emphasized is
Speaker 2: that we were not leveraging on the critical significant ecmments
Speaker 2: as to to create to create market access, especially for
Speaker 2: the for the small players. And the small players can
Speaker 2: range from those ecummance players themselves, but also they're small
Speaker 2: businesses in the in the in the in the in
Speaker 2: the rural areas and the township. So what we're saying
Speaker 2: is that we've got some of these dominant players, which
Speaker 2: for the benefit of the country, they've already built this ecosystem,
Speaker 2: but enabled us to then bring on board some of
Speaker 2: the small businesses in the township, in the rural areas
Speaker 2: because they've already built the ecosystem that will facilitate transportation
Speaker 2: last multi divided, So leverage on that, but any same time,
Speaker 2: making sure that you make spaces for some of the
Speaker 2: smaller economs.
Speaker 1: Do you think anyone in government is listening and there's
Speaker 1: so much talk about regulation at the moment. I'm sorry
Speaker 1: to say this, but I'm not convinced that the Department
Speaker 1: of Trade, Industry and Competition is really listening. I mean
Speaker 1: it's not just the field you're talking about, it seems
Speaker 1: to be everywhere.
Speaker 2: Well, I think, well to be fair government as seems
Speaker 2: to a certain extent, it's listening. They are listening because
Speaker 2: if you think two or three years ago, the Computing
Speaker 2: Commission launched that online Market Inquiry on Commerce which they
Speaker 2: have made quite a number of recommendations and some of
Speaker 2: them are be there to be implemented and some of
Speaker 2: them will orderdy see them. For example, if you go
Speaker 2: online to sexual product, you'll see a South African flag
Speaker 2: if it's from very South African. That is also one
Speaker 2: of the recommendations coming out of that market inquired by
Speaker 2: the Commission Commission. We're hoping that through this study it
Speaker 2: will influence some of the thinking within within the government.
Speaker 2: And during the launch there was some of the government
Speaker 2: representatives who were there and they made some commitment that
Speaker 2: there's some will be able to fall up with some
Speaker 2: of the recommendations.
Speaker 1: Majeta, thank you. Macheta Rakabe is a senior researcher for
Speaker 1: political economy at the Mapuan Kobe Institute for Strategic reflect,