Jul 01, 2022
This article, by former Judge President of South Africa’s Competition Appeal Court, Dennis Davis, examines the decision of South Africa’s Constitutional Court in the Mediclinic case, which concerned a proposed merger in the private healthcare sector involving hospitals in relatively small towns. The Constitutional Court overturned the decision of the majority of the Competition Appeal Court, which found that because medical care in Potchefstroom and Klerksdorp did not fall within the same local market, the merger did not give rise to the problem of a substantial lessening of competition in the local market. The article concludes that whilst the Constitutional Court’s emphasis on the role that the Constitution must play in the interpretation of provisions of the Competition Act is to be applauded, and this case will doubtless influence the interpretation of the Competition Act in future litigation, the right to healthcare in section 27 of the Constitution is not a jurisprudential war cry, and its application must still depend on the facts of the case. The decision may invite the Competition Commission to invoke the Constitution, almost without fetter, and reduce the Competition Appeal Court’s jurisdiction considerably so as to render the Competition Commission far less accountable than should be the case in a dispensation based on the rule of law.