South Africa’s clothing and textile sector has saved thousands of jobs with the assistance of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI’s) production incentives programme within the Clothing and Textiles Competitiveness Programme.
The DTI approved R4.9-billion in incentives, with more than R3.1-billion disbursed in the last financial year.
“Throughout the sector, a number of companies that qualified and drew from both programmes were able to save 81 252 jobs, while an additional 9 672 jobs were created,” Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies said.
Addressing delegates at the National Bargaining Council for the Clothing Manufacturing Industry-hosted Clothing Manufacturing Industry Sector summit, in Durban, this week, he noted that this was an indication that the clothing sector was a significant labour-absorbing sector and that government needed to create more opportunities to keep it sustainable.
“The issue of rebates in the clothing and textile sector is still a burning issue within the industry and part of the government’s plan is still to tighten control of imports and the raising of tariffs to the maximum boundary, like we did in the beginning when we were revamping the whole industry. The whole value chain must still be involved in the sector going forward,” he explained to delegates at what is the first of such summits for the industry.
He further stressed that localisation is a must for every sector of the economy.
“Whatever is needed to be done to protect the industry, it must be done, but it should be in the interest of industry development and to improve the local supplier base. We want to see consequences for those who do not want to implement localisation and empowerment,” he concluded.