Mpumalanga gears up to host World Consumer Rights Day

The province of Mpumalanga has announced that all preparations are in place to host the annual World  Consumer Rights Day celebrations scheduled for 14 March 2025. The event is normally celebrated on 15 March every year, but an exception was reportedly made this year as the 15th of March will fall on a Saturday.

As part of a build up to the main event, some activities have started taking place in different regions of the province, from Monday 10 March 2025.

According to the Acting Director for Business Regulatory and Governance in the Provincial Government, Bonani Dube, the National Consumer Rights Day will run parallel with the Taking the Legislature to the People Programme.

Dube said the World Consumer Rights Day event will be hosted at the University of Mpumalanga, which is a key stakeholder alongside the Competition Commission, National Consumer Commission, and Consumer Protection Forum.

“ We did all the necessary preparations to host this national event. As I’m speaking now, we are here in Pretoria to give a brief in terms of the state of readiness by the province. In our province there’s a programme of Taking the Legislature to the People. Our Premier together with Members of the Executive are in Nkangala District, today, rolling out the Taking the Legislature to the People programme,” said Dube.

Representatives from all the 9 provinces are reportedly expected to attend the event and some have already arrived in Mpumalanga. Dube said the event will be balanced, in terms of representation by the youth, women and people living with disabilities.

Dube said students from various universities including Mpumalanga, North West, Free State, Limpopo and Johannesburg(UJ), and others, have been invited to participate in a symposium where they will deliberate on topics related to consumer rights.

“ When it comes to the issue of youth, the students will be key stakeholders in terms of deliberating on the topics that they’ve already been given,” he said.

According to Dube, the event has been designed to be inclusive and accessible to involve the participation of representatives from organisations that advocate for women’s issues and for people living with disabilities. He said this will ensure that diverse perspectives are well-represented.

“ As a Department (particularly the Consumer Protection), we work closely with key representatives from organisations representing people living with disabilities. There are members who will be coming from the Disability Forums. We have invited them for the breakfast session. We have also invited them to the symposium where the debates will take place,” said Dube.

“ We’ve deliberately decided that the programme of the breakfast session needs to be representative in terms of the key speakers, that we also need to hear a voice from women. The facilitators will be women and men to ensure that there’s balance,” Dube added.

According to Dube, workshops, inspections and exhibitions, will be held in rural areas including; Thaba Chweu Local Municipality, Nkangala District, and Nkomazi Local Municipality, demonstrating the province’s commitment to rural development.

“ Our province is pro-rural and we have tried our level best during our planning sessions to balance the event by reaching out to our rural areas,” said Dube.

Dube stated that to ensure widespread awareness and participation, the province has engaged quite a number of community radio stations so that the messages are spread throughout Mpumalanga.