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CHAPTER THREE
South Africa’s Clothing and Textile Industry
The literature covering South Africa’s clothing industry falls within various themes. Key
among them is the importance of the industry for employment, the challenge to the
industry caused by the surge of cheap imports (both legal and illegal imports mostly
originating from Asia), and the relationship between retailers and the clothing producers
that affects both the formal and informal clothing workers. The literature also reflects some
of the positive policy changes for the clothing industry.
The body of independent fashion designers in South Africa who contribute to burgeoning
creativity within South Africa’s clothing industry is showcased in the literature as one sub-
sectoral roleplayer-cum-stakeholder that seems to bring many, if not all, the diverse
industry components together, by concentrating on the promotion of locally designed
content. The review that follows indicates that it is this sector, and the independent
designers within it, that could constitute a primary catalyst for securing some means of
survival for the clothing industry, as the latter adapts to the warp and weave of
globalisation.
3.1 History of South Africa’s Clothing and Textile Industries
Records reflect that the first clothing factory to be registered in South Africa occurred in
1907 in the Cape, before then informal clothing manufacturing had occurred in the 1800s
in both the Cape and Durban (Netshitomboni, 1996:49). It is common knowledge in 2006
many South Africans are wearing imported clothing, yet prior to 1925, according to Nicole,
(1984, as cited by Netshitomboni:49) South Africans wore clothing imported from the UK, as
the local industry could not compete with the cheaper British imports. After 1925, tariffs
played a pivotal role in the growth of the local clothing industry.
After the Second World War, the South African clothing industry was the fourth largest
within the manufacturing sector (Berger, 1992:177 as cited by Nethsitomboni, 1996:49).
Until 1989, the industry supplied about 90% of local demand (Westhuizen, 2003: 37).
The textile industry in South Africa was established in the 1920s and 1930s, focusing on
blanket manufacturing, and only after the Second World War did the industry expand into
the production of clothing textiles. The textile sector grew under the prevailing
government’s policy of protection. South Africa’s textile industry uses predominantly two
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