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February 23, 2021Date: 21 February 2021
Media release: immediate
SACTWU welcomes Textiles Rebate
The COSATU-affiliated Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) welcomes the recently published textile rebate.
It represents one of the most significant positive developments for local procurement, jobs and domestic industrialisation promotion in many decades.
This is an important concrete implementation component flowing from the signature of the Retail, Clothing, Textile, Footwear & Leather (R-CTFL) Masterplan which was signed by the industry’s social partners on 6 November 2019, at the 2nd Presidential Investment Conference.
Specifically regarding this matter, the R-CTFL Masterplan states as follows:
“Stakeholders set a target to provide fair protection for domestic CTFL value-chain where local production capacity exists and/or will be developed, and the strategic use of rebates to support localization of manufacturing.”
The rebate provision was published by the Deputy Minister of Finance on 5 February 2021.
It follows on a request by clothing industry employer organisations and major retailers for such a rebate.
The publication of the rebate was preceded by an intense four-month period of industry bilateral negotiations between SACTWU and other stakeholders in our industry pipeline.
This process culminated in a historic agreement between the parties, which decisively resolved a more that 4-decade deadlock between us, on this matter.
The employer association signatories to this agreement represent more than 75% of SMME companies in the clothing manufacturing industry, and labour (SACTWU) represents 90% of workers employed in these SMMEs.
This unprecedented consensus industrial development agreement was concluded between SACTWU, clothing retailers represented by the National Clothing Retail Federation (NCRF), clothing manufacturers represented by the Apparel & Textile Association of South Africa (ATASA), the South African Apparel Association (SAAA), and Apparal Manufacturers of South Africa (AMSA), and textile mills represented by the Textile Federation (Texfed).
Together, these employer and labour organisations constitute the most representative industry voice on this rebate matter.
These industry stakeholders presented this plan to government in September 2020.
We are pleased that the Department of Trade, Industry & Competition (DTIC) was positively responsive to the voice of industry, and heeded industry’s request for the rebate to be introduced.
In summary, the now published rebate provides for the following: woven fabric to be imported duty free for the local manufacturing of garments, provided that procurement commitments are made to local textile producers. Such imported fabric can only be used by companies that are signatories to the R-CTFL Masterplan and are compliant with minimum labour standards.
SACTWU now looks forward to an exciting new period of innovative industrialisation and jobs promotion in our industry, which this piece of successful industry social dialogue outcomes represents. We will now turn our attention to developing rebates for yarns and knitted fabric, along the same lines as that developed for woven fabric.
Issued by
André Kriel
SACTWU
GENERAL SECRETARY
If further comment or information is required, kindly contact SACTWU’s Research Director, Simon Eppel,
on cell number 083 652 3559.
