Employment in the Footwear and Leather sector has grown by 5% between 2012 and 2014.This was said by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, during his visit to House of Monatic factory in Salt River, Cape Town. He said the growth has stabilised the industry and enabled it to establish 11 new companies. Lots of people were quite sceptical and said that this industry had no future; we should just muscle-up and just let it go.
“What we've actually seen is that this industry to a high degree has stabilised. We have through the incentive program deployed through the Production Incentive part of it R2.46 billion and further R645 million through the Competitiveness Improvement Programme,” said Davies.
He said government has prioritised the sector and has been supporting the establishment of national clusters to raise competitiveness.
“In addition to the Enterprise level Support Programs we have supported the National Fashion Council to the tune of R33 million, the Footwear and Leather cluster to the tune of R79 million and Cotton cluster to the tune of R120 million and there are some clusters in the Footwear and Leather sector including Exotic Leather, a partnership that seek to link-up Eddles and Foschini . The visit of Davies to House of Monatic factory coincided with the launch of taking the dti to the Factories campaign.
“What we doing today the launch of a program which the dti will be rolling out to the factories. Our principle responsibility lies in the promotion of manufacturing in South Africa. I think what is important about this visit is that we are able to see concretely on the ground what are the outcomes of some of the measures which we’ve been putting in place as government over the last five years,” said Minister Davies.
Five years ago, House of Monatic found itself on the edge of closing. However, through the dti’s intervention they survived shutting down.
“This particular company has received support to the tune of roughly R30 million over the period and we can see that has gone into purchasing acquisition of new machinery which has enabled the cutting operation to take place much more competitively and much more accurately than before. There are new sewing machines that have been acquired through that support program. The other thing that we saw concretely on the ground was that this company is producing uniforms for South African Airways cabin staff,” concluded Davies.
The chairperson of House of Monatic, Fred Robertson thanked Minister Davies for the assistance they have received from government. He said that has enabled them to keep 800 jobs in the company.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe
Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 079 492 1774
Tel: 012 394 1650
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
Twitter: @the_dti
