THE Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has helped consumers get redress of about K40, 000 from business houses engaging in unfair trading practices in Southern Province over the last six months.
CCPC chief investigator in charge of consumer protection Moses Musantu said the presence of Commission in Southern Province for the last six months had helped consumers get redress amounting to a total of K39, 599.00 of which K28, 980.00 were refunds.
Mr Masantu also said K10, 619.00 were replacements of defective products with the ones that were functioning properly.
He was speaking in Livingstone on Wednesday at Chrismar Hotel during the CCPC organised inception workshop for head teachers in Southern Province.
Head teachers from Livingstone, Kazungula, Kalomo and Zimba districts as well as some journalists from the Livingstone Press Club attended the meeting which was hosted to share knowledge regarding Government’s competition and consumer protection policy which is key to every citizen.
“I would like to share with you some successes that the commission has scored since establishing its provincial office for southern province in April, 2015.
“The presence of CCPC in the province for the last six months has helped consumers get redress amounting to a total of K39, 599.00 of which K28, 980.00 were refunds and K10, 619.00 were replacements of defective products with the ones that were functioning properly. This is the monetary value of goods and services consumers would have lost had it not been for the intervention of the commission,” Mr Musantu said.
He said the Commission had also conducted sensitisation activities in all the districts in the province as well as radio and television (TV) programmes.
Equally, CCPC has brought positive change in the conduct of some of the business players who previously had no regard for consumer rights.
The Commission in June 2015 hosted a media and business stakeholders workshop in Livingstone which was aimed at enlightening the identified stakeholder’s about the competition and consumer protection law and policy.
He said the Commission has also been conducting regular inspections on trading premises so as to check out for expired products as well as no return no refund notices which are against the law.
“As we head towards the festive season, we urge the consumers to take time to check for expiring dates as well as getting receipts for any purchase so that they could be used as evidence in an event that they have been sold an expired or defective product by the trader.
“We also wish to advise the traders to desist from misleading consumers in buying products that are almost expiring or already expired. In an event that there is a promotion of a product, the commission is advising traders to fully disclose to consumers that the products are being reduced due to them nearing expiring. This will enable the consumers to make well informed decisions,” Mr Masantu said.
a lot of positive things seem to be happening in southern province…keep up it up MPs and GRZ officials in the south.