Designers from the Eastern Cape received a boost for their careers in the form of a Fashion Design Innovation Centre. The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Ms Thandi Tobias-Pokolo who launched the centre at the Eastern Cape Arts and Craft Hub in Mthatha yesterday, told the young designers to take advantage of the centre and become creative and innovative designers.
According to Tobias-Pokolo, government is indebted to take care of its citizens, particularly the youth. “This centre is one of many interventions of government to empower its citizens with skills and training, which will lead to cutting down the unemployment rate,” said Tobias-Pokolo.
She added that South Africa has sufficient talent that can produce best designs if it could be appropriately nurtured. The centre is expected to create a conducive environment for fashion designing to flourish in the Eastern Cape by assisting designers in the province to unleash their creative potential and compete equally with designers in other parts of South Africa.
Fashion design graduates from the Walter Sisulu University and sewing groups that have been established around OR Tambo and Alfred Nzo districts will receive technical training in all aspects of clothing manufacturing at the new centre.
Tobias-Pokolo said the centre will help boost the economy of Eastern Cape by producing job creators, in a form of fashion designers. This, she said, is because it will provide relevant training, guidance and technical consultation to the industry, collaborate with tertiary education institutions in relevant human capital development and attract world-class skills and capability in certain specialised areas.
The Deputy Director-General for Broadening Participation at the Department of Trade and Industry ( the dti ), Mr Sipho Zikode emphasised that the new challenge for the youth was no longer apartheid, but acquiring skills and developing their own businesses and competing with their counterparts in other countries. Zikode encouraged the young designers to not only acquire skills, but also to approach the dti for assistance in setting up their businesses.
The MEC for Eastern Cape Department of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture Ms Xoliswa Tom, expressed her gratitude for the launch of the centre. She said that young people are the hope of the country and that South Africa needed to invest on them. “We need young people who are not going to sit and wait for things to happen. We want creative and innovative young people who will create jobs,” added Tom.
Gcobisa Duba who is one of the first six beneficiaries of the centre expressed excitement, over the centre. She said the training that she will receive will surely help her to become a fully flashed designer. “I am currently not working, and would like to have my own designs like Sonwabile Ndamase who also hails from the Eastern Cape and has made a name for himself," added Duba.
Duba is a graduate from Walter Sisulu University and says her designs are inspired by the Xhosa tradition. Second from right, Ms Gcobisa Duba together with models wearing some of her designs. Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Thandi Tobias-Pokolo officially opening the Fashion Design Innovation Centre in Mthatha.
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