Analysis of sector dynamics

The South African clothing industry is concentrated in three provinces: Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. According to National Bargaining Council statistics, as of June 2004 there were 827 clothing firms in SA, with 327 located in the Western Cape, 239 in the Northern areas, 219 in KwaZulu-Natal and 42 in the Eastern Cape 5 . Nationally, the sector comprises a number of well-established large firms, SMMEs and home industries. There is also a large cut-make-and-trim (CMT) industry in the Western Cape and KZN that range from large, well-established firms to small home industries. In addition, many of the smaller enterprises form part of the informal economy. Similarly, there is a diversity of fabrics that are used across the provinces, ranging from natural fabrics to synthetics and synthetic mixes. However, higher value-added fabrics (e.g. wool) tend to be used mainly in the Western Cape. Even though the clothing sector is concentrated in only a few areas, primarily the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, there are some major differences between the industries in these provinces, as outlined in Table 2. 

Table 2: A comparison of the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal clothing sectors


The single most significant input into the clothing sector is fabric, which accounts for approximately half of the cost to produce a garment. This clearly ties the domestic clothing and textiles industries together, and even more so with various trade agreements stipulating rules of origin requirements for clothing exports (see Section 4). A constraint to the clothing industry is the shortage of domestically produced fabrics, as well as the limited variety of fabrics produced locally. These factors inhibit the ability of firms to meet the rules of origin requirements for exports under preferential trade agreements, and forces firms to import fabrics that are not produced locally. Furthermore, because these rules of origin tie the domestic textiles industry into the clothing production process, any weakness in the textiles sector has a marked impact on the success of clothing exports. A recent survey on the SA textiles industry 7 revealed that although the industry does have operational strengths, there are numerous competitive weaknesses that remain: Long lead times, poor delivery reliability and deteriorating quality performance. Without an efficient, supportive textiles industry, clothing industry expansion is constrained. Additionally, expansion in the export-oriented clothing.

industry should have a positive impact on the textiles industry – at least the part that supplies clothing production (about 48% of the SA textiles industry). 

Clothing is a labour-intensive sector, contributing 1.8% of overall employment in SA. Combined with textiles, it contributes about 13.4% of total manufacturing employment. As a result, overall employment is relatively large, while output per employee is low compared to more capital-intensive industries. Furthermore, the clothing sector requires a relatively unskilled labour force, with 82.2% of employment in the sector attributed to semi and unskilled workers, 13.4% to mid-level skill occupations, and only 4.4% to jobs requiring high-level skills. Nevertheless, there is a serious need to develop skills, particularly middle-to-upper management skills. Although the CTFL SETA through its Centres of Excellence programmes at the Durban and Peninsular Technikons, as well as Johannesburg University, support the skills base of the industry, these institutions are finding it difficult to secure sufficient support from industry to effect positive transformation. The clothing industry is particularly important to the economy because of its labour absorptive capacity and its ability to offer entry-level jobs for unskilled labour. However, the rapid pace of job losses is a major concern. According to a recent Western Cape clothing industry report (the Ralis report), if employment trends continue the sector will disappear by 2012. While this is clearly an overstatement, the general principle is correct: This is a sector the South African economy is slowly losing. Based on current trends we estimate that the two industries are set to lose between 50,000 and 75,000 jobs in the formal and informal sector over the next nine years.

A number of institutions support the SA clothing sector. However, these institutions are fragmented and often act as lobbying associations. Institutions include:

SACTWU: Southern Africa Clothing and Textiles Workers Union   Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (CMA): Employers organisation that is the bargaining council partner to SACTWU  

CMT Employers’ Association: Employers association in the clothing industry

Bargaining Council for the Clothing Industry: Employer–employee regulatory council for the clothing industry  
CloTrade: The Clothing Trade Council of SA (previously Clofed) was formed in 2003 by clothing manufacturers to be the collective voice of members to interact with government and other stakeholders in respect of trade related matters

Industrial Development Corporation (IDC): The IDC has a Textiles, Clothing, Leather and Footwear Strategic Business Unit that is committed to playing an active role in accelerating the development of this industry

Garment Manufacturers’ Association: Association of larger Western Cape CMTs

Clothing Industry Export Council: An initiative of TISA to assist exporters. In collaboration with EMIA, it provides funding for initiatives such as trade missions and exhibitions  

CTFL SETA: Clothing, Textile and Footwear Sector Education and Training Authority  

CSIR: Supports clothing and textiles through, for example, the National Fibre, Textile and Clothing Centre, which promotes growth and global competitiveness of the South African textiles pipeline.

A Strategic Assessment of the South African Clothing Sector

1. Overview of sector trends
TIPS data, as presented in Table 1, shows that the South African clothing sector has performed poorly. By comparing the average of the indicators for the period 1994-8 with the average for the period 1999-2003, it is clear that the sector’s performance has deteriorated. In particular, there has been deterioration in r
eal value added at basic prices (10.4%), real exports (4.4%), employment (0.6%), output per employee (11.9%), remuneration per
employee (6.8%) and gross mark-up (7.8%). Interestingly, both exports and employment increased (by 1.8% and 1.1% per annum respec
tively) from 1994 to 1998, but declined (by 8.0% and 1.1%) from 1999 to 2003, while real value added declined consistently over the two periods. Real output per employee declined from R67,935 to R60,716 between the two periods, whilst remuneration per employee also fell (from R18,935 to R17,224).

In contrast, there has been an improvement in the GDFI output ratio, the fixed capital stock output ratio and productivity indicators between the two periods. Although the GDFI output ratio grew by 50%, this growth in investment was from only 0.02% to 0.03% of output.

Average fixed capital stock similarly grew from an extremely low 0.11% to 0.13% of output (or 18.18%). Over the 1994 to 1998 period, the average productivity of labour, fixed capital and multi-factor productivity were all exceptionally low, with less than zero units of output produced by each. For the 1999 to 2003 period, the productivity index for each indicator was positive, although still low. Labour productivity reached an average of 0.67 units of output
per employee, fixed capital productivity rose to 0.6 units and multi-factor productivity improved to 0.58 units.  Regarding imports and exports, Table 1 shows an increase in the export-output ratio, import leakage (the amount that is imported to satisfy local demand) and the import minus domestic demand ratio (import penetration). The data show that exports increased from 11.27% to
19.97% of output over the 1994-8 to 1999-2003 period, whilst imports as a proportion of local demand declined from 10.26% to 9.11%. In summary, the performance of the sector over the two periods under review has been poor. Not only has real value added and real exports declined, so has employment.

These overall trends (although not the absolute values) are supported by additional statistics from Statistics South Africa and the dti database. According to these data sources nominal clothing sales increased from R10 billion in 1995 to R13 billion in 2003, but the real value of sales actually declined from R11.8 billion in 1998 to R10.4 billion in 2003, a 12% decline. Employment in the clothing industry has followed a volatile, negative trend, falling by 11.5%, from 125,181 employees in 1994 to 110,739 in mid-2004 – a loss of 14,442 jobs. However, it is important to note that official statistics are likely to underestimate total clothing industry employment due to the large number of informal, micro and home industries that are not captured. Based on the proportional breakdown of formal versus informal clothing sector employment in the September 2003 Labour Force Survey and then extrapolating this across to formal employment levels as indicated by Stats SA, we estimate total clothing employment to be 158,879. In contrast to the data presented in Table 1, output per employee levels calculated using Stats SA data also provides a higher average of R80,001 per employee for the 1999 to 2003 period, and an annual average growth of 3.48%, reflecting a positive trend.  The clothing sector performs well in terms of capacity utilisation, with average utilisation rates of 85% over the 1990-2003 period. Nevertheless, capital expenditure on new assets has been exceptionally low at an average 1.4% of sales from 1992 to 2002 3 . Although the clothing sector is labour-intensive, it is still necessary to invest in capital, technology and innovation to become internationally competitive, especially in light of the constantly changing global environment. Lastly, there has been an increase in the export propensity of firms, as well as an increase in import penetration. Although the industry’s export performance has improved since the early 1990s, it remains modest, reaching 1.4% of total manufactured exports in 2003. Additionally, the demand for clothing is price elastic and therefore the recent appreciation of the Rand has resulted in a loss in export volumes. With regards to imports, the nominal value of clothing imports nearly tripled from 2000 to 2004, reaching R3.9 billion 4 .

A traditional black South African wedding

Check the following interview with Dorah.

S: Sheila D: Dorah

S: Um, Dorah, you said your cousin was getting married yesterday...
D: Yeah.
S: ...in South Africa.
D: Yeah.
S: OK.  Is she getting married in a township or...?
D: No, it’s in a, in a village.
S: In a village.  OK.
D: Yeah, it’s in a village.
S: Right.  Is that near Johannesburg?
D: No, it’s about um, one and a half hours from Pretoria.
S: OK.  Right.
D: In a village.
S: And so she’s your cousin.  Is she your mother’s sister’s daughter, or...?
D: Yeah.  
S: Right.  OK.
D: It’s my mother’s sister’s daughter.
S: OK. Now, I think weddings in South Africa are very different to weddings over here.
D: Yeah.  Yeah, they are.
S: Yeah, so tell, tell me about this wedding.
D: OK.  Um... 
(clears throat)
Like er...  yesterday, which was the wedding day...
S: Mmm, hmm.
D: ...um, at the bride’s place.
S: Right.
D: So what happens is, prior to, to, to, to the wedding...
S: Mmm, hmm.
D: ...the wedding, the preparation...  some of the preparations um, it’s like people will be singing, practising their,
their...   There’ll be some dance...
S: Mmm, hmm.
D: ...that they have to practise and some songs to sing.
S: All, all for the special day.
D: Yes.
S: So they’ve been, they’ve been practising for quite a long time.
D: Yeah, yeah, for a long time.
S: OK.
D: The....   What do you call the...?
S: So you’ve got the bride and the groom.
D: And the other ones
–
 what do you call?
S: The bridesmaids.
D: The bridesmaids.  The, the bridemaids and the... the bridesmaids and the...
S: Groom and the...
D: Yeah, they will practise.  There will be some, some steps, some moves that they have to do.
S: Uh, huh.

D: So they will practise for maybe two or three months before.
S: Really?
D: And some songs.
S: Uh, huh.  Special songs for the day.
D: Yeah.  For the, for the... yeah.
S: OK.
D: And it’s, it’s quite serious.
S: Mmm.
D: You know, there, there will be days that they will prepare the goat, prepare... practice dance, singing, you
know, just to make the day...
S: ...really special.
D: Yeah.
S: And on the day of the, of the wedding on the bride’s side in the morning the, the family from the bride’s
groom...
S: Mmm, hmm.
D: ...have to come to the bride’s place early in the morning.
S: Well, when you say ‘early’, what, 10 o’clock or...?
D: No, around um, 5, 6.
S: 6?  In the morning.
D: In the morning, yeah.  And in the olden days they say it used to be around 4.  It’s our tradition in, in my...
people.
S: Uh, huh.
D: They would come in the morning and then there is um...    Um, I won’t say it’s, it’s a present, but, it’s um... 
It’s one of our traditions.  There will be...  an offering –
 if I may call it?
S: Mmm, mm.
D: ...they will give them
–
 a sheep or a goat.
S: Right.
D: It’s for them and then they have to slaughter it.
S: So they give them a live sheep?
D: Yeah, a live sheep or a live goat.
S: To the...  Who, who brings the sheep or the goat?  Is it the...
D: It’s there.  It’s, it’s there.  The, the, the, the girl’s family.
S: Yeah.
D: They’ve, they’ve got this to give to the bri...  husband’s
-to-be.
S: OK.

South Africa awesome bathroom let you and the lion be companion

Now some people are very critical for the bathroom environment, not for staying in a hotel, but the bathroom. Common bathroom, it can let you drink a glass of champagne in the tub to enjoy some romantic. In fact, there is such a bathtub you do not need to take diving equipment, then you can see the bottom of the sea fish, do not hustle to take risks, you can see a lion walking on the prairie, do not visit the museum, you can admire the paintings of Renaissance masters. All these are true, as long as you soak in a hot bath, lying in the bathroom can be done.

Lion Sands Ivory hostel locates in South Africa Lion Sands Reserve which for lion protection, Kruger National Park Sabie river bank, this house, described as the perfect place to chill. Surrounded by all-glass bathroom design, you can take a shower while relaxing bubble bath, while the lions, hippos and other animals company your side. Watching them roam free in their natural habitat, at the same time you can live comfortably on a romantic luxury hotel and admire the beautiful scene, just simply heavenly feeling.

This is the address of this incredible bathroom, check it out if you are interested.


Address: Kruger GateRoad (R536), KrugerNational Park

4 Great Meanings of Wedding Diamond Ring

"A diamond is forever treasure," diamonds, as essential items of marriage, do you know the meaning of diamond in wedding ring? Wedding ring plays a role to connect the soul of couple in married life, you may wish to look good moral behind the ring when you are prepared to select it.

1, representing the unlimited right

People use ancient Greek etymology adamant to name it as diamond, meaning that hard material inviolable. Since the diamond is very hard, people take the diamond as extraordinary ability, it is very strong, not only indestructible, but also invincible. Thus, in Europe hundreds of years ago, only the king to wear diamonds in order to symbolize power, majesty and bravery, and even think that wearing a diamond can be invincible.

2, symbol of pure love

Diamond, pure transparent, enduring, like a lover's bright piercing eyes, affectionately watching you. It is a sign of pure love, expressing eternal pursuit of love and loyalty.

3, represents the prosperous and developed

Diamond represents prosperity, from the Star of South Africa. In 1869, the discovery of Star of South Africa which original weight is 83.50 kt that laid the foundation for the South of wealth. It also leads huge numbers of people to dig diamond in South Africa, and attracts people from all over the world came to South Africa to find wealth, it plays an important role in prosperity of South Africa.

4, mark of extraordinary ability

In geology, according to the relative hardness of the nature of the hardness of minerals into 10 hardness, as the standard stone 10, diamond is the hardest, but also the only crystals of 10 hardness. The hardness of diamond hardness is 150 times of sapphire(9) and 1,000 times of crystal hardness (7). Therefore, people take the diamond as a sign of extraordinary ability, it very strong, indestructible and invincible.