"The agreement to lower the minimum wage by 30 percent within the clothing and textile industry is a model that can be implemented to increase South Africa's competitiveness and employment creation," Sacci president Chose Choeu said in a statement, inviting other industries to "seriously consider the brave example of the clothing and textile industry when tackling the significant problem of unemployment in South Africa". Choeu said the agreement had not only saved jobs, but already led to the creation of new jobs.
Business Day reported last week that Cape Town-based manufacturer Peter Blond & Associates announced that they will increase their workforce by 25 percent - creating 5000 new jobs - within the next three years. In the past decade, the industry had lost 50,000 jobs, as the sector struggled to compete with cheap Chinese imports, according to the report. Choeu said the agreement "clearly shows a relatively quick and red-tape-free method of creating jobs".
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