Durban - Schools that enter into exclusive agreements with school uniform suppliers may be contravening the Competition Act.
The Competition Commission has raised concerns about these often long-term agreements, which limit parents’ choices on where they shop and how much they spend on school uniforms and other accessories.
Commission spokesman Mava Scott said:
“The commission has in the past conducted investigations into different levels of the school uniform supply chain, in Gauteng and Mpumalanga, and found instances of breaching of the Act... this could be a nationwide practice among private and public schools.”
They have now raised the matter with the national Education Department and school-governing bodies to discuss the “anti-competitive effects” of exclusive agreements.
In Cape Town, the commission received a complaint from a parent who said his child’s school had appointed a sole uniform stockist and that the prices were high.
Parents of children in such schools have complained about the cost of uniforms, pointing out that they were expensive because suppliers had no competition.
“We are forced to buy uniforms from the school because they are not sold elsewhere. They could inflate the prices, but what can we do?” asked a parent who has a child at Eshowe Junior Primary School.
The KwaZulu-Natal Parents Association’s Vee Gani said uniforms were generally expensive and that pupils needed more than one set.
“Private schools are more particular, but even public school uniforms are not cheap,” he said.
Gani said while schools needed to have suppliers with which they agreed on design and quality, he did not see the need for exclusivity agreements because “having more than one supplier could help keep the prices manageable”.
Tongaat’s Victoria Primary started selling clothes on campus in 2009 and the principal, Lajaeeth Maharaj, said they bought directly from manufacturers.
“We would like to get reliable shops to sell our uniform, but we want to ensure that the quality of the items is maintained,” he said.
The uniform of Westville’s Atholl Heights Primary is only available at the school shop, Gem Schoolwear and Heather’s Schoolwear.
The school’s acting principal, L Wing, said they did not have exclusive agreements with suppliers, but conceded that except for dresses, boys’ shirts and shorts, all the other items, including bags, were only sold on the school’s premises.
Another staff member at Atholl Heights said the school stopped using other suppliers because their colours were not the same shade as the school colours.
The mother of an Atholl Heights pupil complained that even a sports T-shirt cost R120.
“They should be concerned with the colour rather than insisting that all the clothes have the school badge. That way, we can buy the shirts from other retailers at a cheaper price.”
Both parents said they had to spend a minimum of R3 000 on uniforms and school bags when their children were first enrolled and spent about R1 000 a year to replace some items.
Gem chief executive Idris Pandor said his company did not have exclusivity agreements with any of the hundreds of schools they supplied.
Pandor said the Competition Commission needed to study the market thoroughly to understand why schools were entering into exclusivity agreements before declaring it an uncompetitive practice.
He said the industry was tough, causing some of the suppliers to prefer exclusivity so they could control that “area of the market”.
“For Gem, once we’ve stocked the uniform, the school, local supplier and parents can come to our wholesale store and buy it,” he said.
Ashton International College in Ballito sells part of its uniform on its premises and other items could be bought from any clothing store.
Durban’s Embury College, which sells uniforms at the school, is in the process of changing its uniforms, requiring parents to budget approximately R3 000 to dress their children next year.
The college’s executive head, Johannes Mouton, said some standard items could be bought from retailers.
A spokesman for the KZN Department of Education, Muzi Mahlambi, said: “Schools cannot enter into agreements on their own without the involvement of our legal department clearing the potential risks and with the approval of the HOD.”
It was worrying that some of these agreements limited parents’ choices on where they could buy, he said. - The Mercury