NCC launches national opt-out registry to end spam calls & Premier-RFG merger on the line

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And now, The Money Show with Stephen Grootes, on 702

SPEAKER_2 (0:06)

Let's walk the talk.

Stephen Grootes (0:07)

The Money Show with Stephen Grootes is brought to you by Absa Corporates, an investment banking connecting global finance to the future. That's how Absa's invested in your story. Eight minutes after six, good evening. I'm Stephen Grootes, welcome to the programme. An astonishing story about the Premier Group, the food company being asked now, the Competition Commission going to the Competition Tribunal. They want to undo the merger over the purchase by the Premier Group of the Rhodes Food Group. I mean, I can't remember a merger being undone by the Tribunal before. We'll talk more about it in a little while, in about half an hour or so.

We'll speak to Nicolene Schoeman-Louw, the managing director at Schoeman Law Inc. But the most astonishing story, and this is all about the cannery, a fruit factory, if you want to call it that, in Tulbach, which the premier group said it was going to have to close. You might work there, you might have someone, you might know someone in your family who works there. I know for that community it's a devastating decision.

One of the questions I'm afraid I have is that the premier group says, no matter what happens, the factory is not sustainable. Now, okay, you undo the merger, then what? I don't know if that protects the jobs or not. You'd like to think so, but I don't know if it will. Your thoughts on that, please. I would love to know from you, your worst ever spam call, your experience of spam calls. For me, the thing that actually does my head in there too, the one is, how many car insurance companies could they possibly be in South Africa? And how do they all have my number? Because that's all I get.

And the second is, repeatedly, some company, I don't even listen long enough to get to the name, who call me because for some reason, it's got me confused with a friend of mine who left the country a decade ago. Herman Machaba was mayor of Joburg, for goodness sake, when this person left. And still, and I've told them a million times, still, I get this spam call. So today, big conversations, the National Consumer Commission acting against this, the information regulator part of it, the DTIC part of it, will speak to the National Consumer Commission in just a moment. We'll speak to Hardin Ratshisusu, the Commissioner at the NCC. Also, and I would stick around for this if I were you, I will speak to David Dickens, the CEO of the Direct Marketing Association of South Africa. I have an impact on them, but does cold calling really work? I mean, presumably, otherwise people wouldn't do it. But really, I mean, does it really work? We'll talk about that. I think this is a really big issue. And if you, like me, find there are days when you just actually can't use your phone because of the nonsense you get called with, you know, it almost becomes not ungovernable, unusable. So yeah, your stories about that, please, and your view of it. I mean, I did once get a phone call from someone a couple of years ago that actually works in this space and just said, you have no idea how many jobs it creates. So maybe you have someone who works in that field. I mean, I can't imagine what that must be like. It must be soul-destroying to work at a call center every day. Hello, Mr. Grootes. Do you want to buy corn? No.

And that's when I'm being polite. So, yeah, I can't imagine what that's like. Also, we will talk about how you feel about your finances. Kelle Bokkwamo is a behavioral scientist, CODU-GRO, at the Sundom Financial Confidence Index, suggesting we're actually feeling more in control of our finances. That surprised me, but that's what they have found. We'll talk about that too. Good to hear from you. Please, call 011-AA307-02-021-4460567 and voicemails on spam calls on 072-702-1702.

SPEAKER_4 (3:43)

The Money Show with Stephen Grootes, live on 92.7 and 106 FM, streaming on the Prime Media Plus app and DSTV channel 856

Stephen Grootes (3:54)

Well, if you have a cell phone, and I'm guessing that you do, I'm absolutely certain you've had a large number of spam calls, people trying to sell you, I don't know, car insurance, make you play the European lottery, make you listen to some awful pre-recorded message. Now government through the DTIC, the National Consumer Commission and the Information Regulator, they're going to try and stop that from happening. They're launching an opt-out system that will regulate who can get called and who can't. Hardin Ratshisusu is the Acting Commissioner at the National Consumer Commission. Acting Commissioner, good evening. Okay, so there'll be a register that would allow you to opt out of getting these calls. How's this actually going to work?