With my international business students, we went to visit Clotex - Clothing and Textile Service Center - an NGO that was created to try and save the West Cape's dying industry. We met with the 2 volunteer executives who has been in the industry for many years and are now fighting to help many of the very small shops to survive. The base of the industry has collapsed and in 2003 South Africa was a net-exporter of clothing. In 2008, it is expected that there will be 700 million Rands of exports and 4 billion Rands of imports!
The German Government, through GTZ, came in to do a study about the industry only to find out that nobody knew what can make it survive and how. The local government decided to provide basic training to many of the smaller companies that had zero access to finance (especially since many did not bother to register as a small business being very afraid of the rampant corruption in the government sector after the fall of Apartheid).
Another HUGE problem, we were told, if the fact that training must be ongoing since so many workers actually die from AIDS every day!
Their mission:
CLOTEX aims - with respect to the growth and pipeline efficiency of the clothing and textile industry in the Western Cape - to facilitate access to information, advice, trade contracts and opportunities as well as councelling for SMME's in the industry and its related sub-sectors, with particular though not exclusive emphasis on the emergent and formally disadvantaged entrepeneurs. CLOTEX's current role is to mainly focus on increasing employment through the development needs of entrepreneurs operating small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME's).
Our host felt that the industry as a whole lacks benchmarks to success (such as those established by Zara and H&M), and its members need to also take advantage of the current exchange rate which really works to their favor in terms of exporting. Yet the organization can only serve as a facilitator outside the trade unions and use countries such as Italy as a benchmark for success in terms of creating high value textile and clothing products.
The small quarters of the organization and its humble leaders made it clear to us that this organization has an uphill battle ahead... Later we found out that many of the industries in this country face similar challenges.
1 comment:
is it sad but our beloved south africa is dying, it is slipping down the slide to become a "proudly (south) african" country. Aids, famine, corruption, rape, violence, poverty and all those other things african governments are so good at achieving for their people while the politicians swiss bank accounts grow day by day.
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