Greater effort has been directed at localisation of the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to boost the Retail Clothing, Textile, Footwear and Leather (R-CTFL), in light of the devastating effects of the Covid-19 in the sector.
The Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Mr Fikile Majola told Parliament’s Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Small Business Development, Tourism, Employment and Labour this afternoon. He led a team of the dtic officials, to brief the parliamentarians on progress in the implementation of the industry’s Master Plan.
Majola says the sector is one of the key industries, identified as critical in driving the economy of the country.
“Government is committed to reviving the sector as it focuses on rebuilding manufacturing and to enable it to expand its capacity. We also are working towards significantly reducing illegal imports to eliminate unfair competition against local retailers and manufacturers,” he said.
The R-CTFL value chain is a major contributor to the South African economy, with CTFL retail playing a much larger role than the manufacturing portion of the value chain. The value chain’s total Gross Domestic Product contribution is R74 billion, while its employment contribution is more than 210 000.
The R-CTFL Master Plan was signed in November 2019 with seven commitments. These included growing the local market, driving local sourcing, ending illegal imports and value chain transformation.
During this period of the pandemic specific focus has been placed on intensifying support for products such as surgical and consumer masks, respirators, medical textiles, leather and footwear products, gloves, body bags.
The support given includes ensuring adherence to procurement regulations and issuing of timely orders, matching of demand and supply, sourcing and ensuring availability of raw material in South Africa
The National Treasury in support of the dtic has called on all compliant, particularly local suppliers providing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) commodities to direct their offers to the Project Management Office (PMO), which has been set up for this purpose.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe-Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: (012) 394 1650
Mobile: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
Issued by: The Department of Trade and Industry
Follow us on Twitter: @the_dti
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