ONE of Cape Town’s biggest clothing factories, which was on the brink of closing down and faced the loss of hundreds of jobs, had been saved thanks to his department’s intervention, said Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies.
He said employment in the footwear and leather sector had grown by 5 percent from 2012 to this year through an incentive programme to help the sector.
The government had made the sector a priority and had been supporting the establishment of national clusters to raise competitiveness, Davies said during a recent visit to Monatic’s factory in Salt River.
“What we’ve actually seen is that this industry… has stabilised. We have deployed through the production incentive part R2.46 billion and a further R645 million through the competitiveness improvement programme,” said Davies.
“In addition to the enterprise level support programmes we have supported the National Fashion Council to the tune of R33m, the footwear and leather cluster to the tune of R79m and cotton cluster to the tune of R120m,” said Davies. – Staff Writer