THIEVES AT THE DINNER TABLE, enforcing the Competition Act, a personal account

318pp., paperback, Johannesburg, 2012

A personal account of David Lewis' time as chair of the Competition Tribunal and the way this new body dealt with the anti-competitive practices of South African big business. David Lewis provides case studies of three main aspects of the Tribunal's work: mergers, monopolies and cartels.

"This is a book on competition law that reads like a thriller. David Lewis has taken what might have been a dry, textbook topic and turned it into compulsive reading. But in giving the history of South African competition law some flesh and colour, he also imparts advice and opinions, which, whilst sometimes controversial, challenge the way we should think of economic regulation and the institutions that regulate." Norman Manoim, Chairperson, South African Competition Tribunal

David Lewis worked for the trade union movement from 1975 to 1990, participated in the drafting of the Competition Act and chaired the Competition Board. He was head of the Competition Tribunal for ten years, from its founding in 1999. After his term ended he was appointed an extraordinary professor at the Gordon Institute of Business Science. In 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in economic science by the University of Cape Town. He is now Executive Director of Corruption Watch.