The South African retail-clothing, textile, footwear and leather (R-CTFL) value chain masterplan has brought optimism to many women in rural Keates Drift in Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal, the government claimed recently. The area, one the poorest in South Africa since its shoe factory closed 26 years ago leaving 3,000 families without any source of income, is slowly building its way up in the clothing and textile sector.
To reduce unemployment and poverty in the area, Lelly Mntungwa, 42, started empowering the community through job creation and skills capacitation and established Msinga Clothing Factory in 2016 to further her ambition, according to the country’s department of trade, industry and competition.The South African retail-clothing, textile, footwear and leather value chain masterplan has brought optimism to many women in rural Keates Drift in Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal, the government claimed. The area, one the poorest in the country since its shoe factory closed 26 years ago, is slowly building its way up in the clothing and textile sector.#
Mntungwa said the Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority (HWSETA), which was responsible for all its training and skills development requirements, came to her rescue in 2019 and they could implement skills training in Msinga.
“HWSETA has now aligned with government (R-CTFL) value chain masterplan by giving the rural communities a chance to participate in skills programmes especially in clothing and textile. Skills transfer is a sustainable gift that can empower people to become income generators and survive during difficult situations,” she said.
HWSETA has also identified 19 cooperatives that have 800 youth and women in rural areas across South Africa to enhance their skills in clothing and textile, so that they are able to manufacture for retail stores.
She said government is also encouraging retail stores to source products locally and invest in the clothing and textile sector through the masterplan.
Stakeholders in the sector have since committed to growing the market for local CTFL producers.
Retailers in the country made a commitment to a target to grow local CTFL share of sales to 65 per cent to support R69 billion domestic CTFL procurement that delivers total R-CTFL employment of 333 000 workers including 165 000 CTFL manufacturing jobs.
DTIC also afforded Mntungwa a training opportunity in China to be trained in clothing and textile skills at the Minjiang University in Fuzhou.
Msinga Clothing Factory, which employs 100 women, is now making garments for the Foschini Group, Mr Price, and Ackermans and Mntungwa has since been nominated by HWSETA to mentor other projects in the rural areas of South Africa.
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