The South African clothing and textile industry is attempting to get back on track. In the past 15 to 20 years, the industry has shrunk as a result of retrenchments, factory closures and an influx of cheap imports. Between 2002 and 2012, the industry also suffered job losses as a result of poor training and a lack of investment by companies. The industry shrunk by 20 per cent in the past three years and job losses were estimated at 29, 500 between 2007 and 2010. But subsequently the number of jobs lost declined by 66 per cent between a 12-month period in 2010 and the corresponding period last year.

The government provided incentives to the clothing, textile, footwear and leather sector, where support was conditional on increased competitiveness. Production incentives fall under the Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Improvement Program, which helps companies improve competitiveness and pay for capital upgrading. This saved 63,000 jobs and created 8,000 additional jobs.

Over the last 20 years, local manufacturers paid, on an average, about 22 per cent in import duties for fabrics that were not available locally. They hope that a positive announcement about relief on fabric import duties would add to the stabilization. In the long term the government wants the local industry to become part of the global supply chain.