The new Consumer Protection Act, which partially came into effect, would be a "damp squib" without the regulations meant to give it teeth, said Werksmans Attorneys director Neil Kirby.

"The problem is that, until we have regulations that flesh out the legislation, it is rather like a car without an engine," he said.

While consumers could now sue manufacturers and retailers for damages for selling flawed or harmful products, nothing was in place to support the rest of the legislation which was expected to be implemented by October.

"Such a state of affairs is inconsistent with the gradual coming into force of this legislation, which is designed to make it easier for consumers and suppliers to deal with the Act and integrate its provisions into our commercial affairs," Kirby said.

He said draft regulations should have been made available for public debate months ago, but that there was no sign of any progress.

In the absence of regulations spelling out the scope and ambit of exemptions and thresholds, it was difficult for consumers and businesses to understand how the consumer protection framework would work in practice.

"The regulations would have told us what organisations and products would be directly affected by the act and which would be exempted, what regulatory assistance would consequently be available to consumers and how the act would be enforced," said Kirby.

"If South Africa is to build a culture of taking consumer rights seriously, it would be nice to have the regulations in place. Otherwise, we are just creating another legislative showpiece," he said.

National Consumer Forum chairman Thami Bolani agreed on the need for regulations, but said these were still being finalised by the department of trade and industry.

The department's consumer protection chief director Ebrahim Mohamed said Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies could not start making regulations until the act was published, and that this had happened only recently.

"The regulations cannot come before the act. The minister signed the act on April 24 last year and it was only published now, recently, to also allow those who qualify for indemnity to apply," he said.

Mohamed described the implementation of the initial part of the act as "preparations" for when the rest of it came into force, and a test of the act's viability.

Consumers would only be able to enforce their rights using the law after October, when the would be fully enforced with regulations in place, he said.