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million in 2005” (Pursuit, 2006:24). Such concerns provide space for deliberation on the
value of fair trade, where the manufacturing process of a product can be clearly and
easily traced.
Another example of the South African government policy for revitalising the industry is the
renewal of the Duty-Credit Certification Scheme (DCCS) for two more years as of April
2005. In terms of the scheme, exporters will receive a duty credit of R25 for every R100
worth of goods they export (Inggs, 2006h).
Further policy developments have been the extension of National Bargaining Council
wages to cover non-Metro areas (Inggs, 2005b). This required clothing manufacturers in
non-Metro areas to pay their workers an across-the-board increase of R20-80 per week as
from 19 December 2005.
Responding to the precarious situation in the South African clothing industry, management,
unions and the State tend to blame each other for this instability, and while the “blame
game” results in vacillation among the various industry role-players, jobs in this sector of
industry continue to be shed.
The government’s response to industry leaders and unions condemning its trade policies as
being responsible for the crisis in the industry is that it cannot “artificially sustain
uncompetitive industries … but will assist the [clothing industry] on the understanding that,
in its current form, [it] was and [is] neither competitive nor sustainable and needs to
change” (DTI, 2005).
The Department of Trade and Industry, in its 2005 report, states that there is a “lack of
creativity, entrepreneurship, vision and leadership” in the clothing and textile industry, and
that even in the wake of adverse competition at the lower end of the value chain, there
are opportunities that “fly over the heads of established industry leaders.” In his 2005 report
to NEDLAC, Barnes concurs with the DTI assessment, saying that “the industry lacks
innovation” (Barnes, 2005:7).
The argument for creativity and innovation is confirmed in Fakude (2001), who notes that
the clothing industry needs to focus on the higher end of the value chain, and to innovate
products for the higher income markets. Hoosen Rasool, the CEO of the Education and
Training Authority for clothing, textiles, footwear and leather goods, supports this view
(Inggs, 2006d) and it is in this vein that South Africa’s independent fashion designers play a
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