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Over the decades, the work-force of the clothing sector has changed dramatically. During
the formative years, the industry was dominated by white workers but their numbers began
to decline during the 1940s. The 1960s saw an increase in African women entering the
industry, and by 1974 the number of African workers was slightly lower than that of their
Coloured counterparts; Africans dominated the Transvaal sector of the industry, while
Coloured workers dominated the Cape industry. By 1969, Indian workers dominated the
industry in Durban.
In June 2004, the National Bargaining Council recorded the following breakdown of
clothing firms in South Africa: 327 in the Western Cape, 239 in the Northern areas of the
country, 219 in KwaZulu-Natal and five in the Eastern Cape (Barnes, 2005:5).
3.2 The Clothing Industry in KwaZulu-Natal
Since the primary research undertaken for this study was done in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, it
is important to give a brief historical description of KwaZulu-Natal’s clothing and textile
sector.
The clothing industry in KwaZulu–Natal (KZN) dates back to the early 1920s (Skinner and
Valodia, 2004). Durban was and remains the centre of lower-end clothing production
(Skinner and Valodia, 2004) the very sector that has to compete with Asian imports. The
clothing industry has always been an important actor in the economy of KZN (Robbins et
al, 2004), contributing about 14% of the industrial output, as recorded in the 1996
Manufacturing Census, with about 525 clothing firms in KZN alone at the time of this
research, according to Morris et al, (1997), providing in the region of 24 000 jobs and
contributing R4-billion to the province’s gross domestic product (Clark, 2005).
The early 1930s saw the establishment of associations and unions to bring the industry in
Durban together. The Garment Workers’ Industrial Union (Natal) and the Natal Clothing
Association were formed in 1934 and 1935 respectively. The government blocked Indian
garment owners’ attempts to start their own union. Conditions within the clothing industry
in Durban were appalling during these formative years. Archival reports show that
garment workers had no annual leave and during the 1930s, workers were only allowed
two paid holidays per year. Workers often had to work a fifty-hour week (Netshitomboni,
1996:79).
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