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Ministers meet to try to save Seardel

The brand new ministers of Trade and Industry and of Economic Development, Rob Davies and Ebrahim Patel, have leapt into a valiant effort to save the loss-making textile and clothing firm Seardel's loss-making Frame textile division from closing down.

Patel, until recently the chief of the SA Clothing and Textiles Workers Union (Sactwu), and Davies met in Cape Town on Tuesday, 19 May 2009, with the leadership of the union, with Walter Simeoni, the chief executive of Seardel and Geoffrey Qhena, chief executive of the Industrial Development Corporation.

A statement issued after the meeting said that it was convened "with a view to working towards a solution which all the stakeholders would contribute to, and which would avoid closing the Frame facility".

A task team was set up "to further clarify the options which have been identified", and that the team has to report back to a ministerial level meeting to be held on Monday.

Published courtesy of

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