ANC unstitches South Africa's clothing industry

The yarn spun by the ANC that they could not be held responsible because they did not order the T-shirts directly but used sub-contractors is an infantile excuse. They could have placed provisions in their tender process that all T-shirts had to be made locally. The response from labour organisations and from the toothless buy local campaign Proudly South Africa will be interesting.

The South African government cannot call on its citizens to be patriotic by supporting 'Made in SA' clothing or expect clothing retailers to support the local apparel industry when they have demonstrated such inexcusable behaviour. How will the ANC account for the hundreds if not thousands of job losses that will occur in this industry within the coming months?

It is clear from this action that government has no real intention of helping this stressed industry sector nor South African fashion designers who, by the nature of the apparel value-chain, are linked to the textile and clothing manufacturing sector.

Rescue plan

Recently the Department of Trade and Industry held workshops for the industry where they unveiled their new rescue plans. It was interesting to note that at one of the workshops it was suggested that the department should first concentrate on the illegal imports and under-invoicing taking place before they try to implement a series of complex policy plans. This suggestion was muted by the DTI who said systems were already in place to deal with this matter.

The intended rescue-package provides the opportunity for financial help through the IDC and increasing import duties. This is an indictment that the quotas were never intended to give the space for the industry to upgrade or that it would provide sustainable relief to the industry. The entire quota debacle and the way they were implemented smacks of political appeasement.

Quotas

So while the quotas officially ended, it has been revealed that the government was holding bilateral talks with the Chinese to discuss the possibilities of extending the quotas without any input from the industry. The saga around the banning of the Dalai Lama to visit South Africa is, in my opinion, a message to the Chinese government that South Africa will do anything to appease its new colonial master; however, this subservient stance backfired when China showed government the middle finger by rejecting the request for an extension on import quotas.

Statistics reveal that more than 2000 people in the clothing and textile sector have already lost their jobs this year. Deputy Director General of International Trade and Economic Development from the DTI, Xavier Carim said that China's refusal to extend the quotas could "seriously harm local clothing producers", and what has the ANC's decision to have nearly a million of their T-shirts made in China done for the industry?

A SACTWU spokesperson felt aggrieved that China had blindsided the request for quota extension saying that South Africa accounted for less than 1% of all China's apparel exports. Why should China give preferential treatment to South Africa when their own industry is under strain and they have to compete with its Asian neighbours?

Taking matters in our own hands

This latest debacle is a clear message to the apparel sector that they cannot be dependent on government for any bail-out. I think the industry, retailers and the fashion sector should hold an indaba to take matters in their own hands and find equable mechanisms to take this sector forward. One of the first issues such an industry sector meeting needs to do is weed out its own unscrupulous members who are undermining the industry from within. In doing so, the industry will send a message to government that they will, within the frame-work of the law, find their own solutions with minimal government intervention to sustain this historical industry.