EDITOR – There was a time not so long ago, that some of us may recall, when you would go shopping and most of the items on the shelves would reflect “Made in South Africa.”
Today it’s almost impossible to find anything on the shelves of these megastores that inspires us to be “proudly South African.” My question is how did South Africa move from being a major exporter of clothing and shoes in particular to being totally reliant on imports?
A good start to answering this question would be to begin at pre-Apartheid South Africa,when we were forced by political instruments, to become self-sufficient. It was a time when “sanctions” were imposed by the international community in opposition to the inhumane policy of separate development “Apartheid”. It was a time that South Africa had to become self-sufficient resulting in our industries to flourish and we were manufacturing and exporting high grade goods.
A closer look at the clothing and textile industry which was the pride and joy of the South African working class, reveals some astonishing and frightening facts and statistics. This industry is one sector that was shedding tens of thousands of jobs a year through the late 90s. Before the transition to democracy the sector employed some 250,000. It was supported by high tariffs that kept foreign goods out, very low wages that kept costs down, and substantial financial subsidies that kept businesses alive.
In 1993, on the eve of the new democracy, South Africa took part in talks on a new trade deal aimed at setting lower tariffs and opening markets across the world. South Africa was represented by the out-going government and the rest is history.
The result of this deal caused the lowering of the protection every year from 100 per cent to 40 per cent by 2002. The numbers paint a starkly vivid picture: from 2002 to 2006 total clothing imports increased by 480 per cent while clothing imports from China increased by 730 per cent. The net effect of opening the markets and lowering of tariffs can be seen in actual statistics – at the beginning of 1996 SA had about 266,000 clothing, textile, footwear and leather workers but by the end of 2011 the numbers had more than halved in that we had just under 100,000 workers.
This spotlight on just one industry really represents a microcosm of the bigger problem and one can now understand somewhat why the shelves of our megastores are loaded with foreign goods and rarely show-off any South African products.
It’s no fault of the post apartheid government, who strongly objected to the actions of the Apartheid government – the then president, Nelson Mandela personally made attempts to reverse those deals but it was a case “of closing the stable doors after the horses have bolted”.
The ANC led government has tried to intervene with many ingenious schemes to resuscitate the industry and the fruits of these interventions are now beginning to see the light of day.
This laconic glimpse into what happened, to our once pride and joy, may help us ordinary citizens understand the circumstances that led to the devastation of this industry and this can be extrapolated to every other industry that was affected by the decision of the previous government to lower the tariffs and open the markets just on the eve of our democracy.
Sicario
Durban
