There has been much debate concerning both the efficiency of the Constitutional Court and its present ability to produce judgments of the highest quality. As an example, Tim Cohen in Daily Maverick not only discussed these questions, but pertinently raised the question of the Courts' capacity to decide complex commercial cases.

Turning to efficiency, no judgments were delivered in the first three months of this year.

Finally, the Court, as if to answer these questions, awoke in April. It delivered a judgment on 17 April in the case concerning Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (Pty) Ltd v The Competition Commission.

(For the record, it has delivered two other judgments in April concerning Capitec Bank and Nedbank.)

The Coca-Cola case involved a merger which had been approved by the Competition Tribunal in 2016 which created Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (Pty) Ltd from four separate bottling companies. The conditions were imposed before the merger was approved, which included the maintenance of aggregate employee numbers as at the pre-merger operations for a specific period. The conditions included the prohibition of the retrenchment of employees in certain collective bargaining units as a result of the merger together with allowing retrenchments of those who fell outside of the bargaining units, but only under certain conditions.

Subsequent to the merger, Coca-Cola faced a number of economic challenges including the deterioration of the economy and the imposition of a sugar tax. Sales volumes had declined and various competitors had gained market share. Certain retrenchments followed shortly thereafter which led to...