Africa-Press – Botswana. The supply of school uniform is one of the businesses that are still reserved solely for citizens under the current legislature of Industrial Development Regulations.
Speaking in Parliament on December 15, Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Mmusi Kgafela said government came up with the Industrial Development Act to address bulk importation of uniforms by chain stores, which he said frustrated citizen participation in the textile and apparel industry.
“Such drawbacks are the reason government came up with the Statutory Instrument No 76 of 2021 under the Control of Goods, Prices and Other Charges Act.
We did not immediately enforce it as we wanted to give the local textile industry a chance to stabilise for a smooth transition,” he said.
Mr Kgafela said the actual enforcement started a year later, but said it was too soon to provide any statistics on whether the local textile industry was growing or not.
He however, said despite lack of such statistics, there had been some positive developments towards self-sufficiency in the production of school uniform.
“More companies are now producing school uniform, especially in Gaborone, Francistown and Selebi Phikwe.
The improvement is in both quantity and quality,” he said.
Mr Kgafela said his ministry had frequently engaged the textile and apparel industry on how to assist the sector take advantage of the said statutory instrument to strive for self-sufficiency.
He said so far the industry’s challenge was inadequate equipment and unavailability of raw materials, and that measures to address such were still being considered.
“There is a task team made up of the ministry, LEA, BOBS, CEDA and the Department of Co-operatives Development, which will consider ways that the school uniform sub-sector could be assisted to overcome the current obstacles and challenges impeding its growth,” he said.
Mr Kgafela also said his ministry was fully aware of the absence of fabric mills and distributors of school uniform fabrics in the country, but said those were some of the issues to be addressed by the task force.
He said the ministry often conducted monitoring through sampling of a few enterprises to determine local production.
“The feedback so far is that the ministry should not issue permits for school uniform, and it is through this advice that the ministry has not issued any import permits during this calendar year,” he said.
Mr Kgafela was giving progress on the Statutory Instrument No 76, Control of Goods, Restriction on the Importation of School Uniform Regulations of 2021.
He was explaining at the request of the legislator for Gaborone Central, Mr Tumisang Mangwegape-Healy, who also wanted to know measures government was putting in place to ensure that local manufacturers could meet the capacity demands of retailers for locally produced school uniform.
Mr Mangwegape-Healy also wanted to know how the ministry had engaged institutions and stakeholders, and if he was aware of lack of fabric mills or distributors of raw materials in the country, but only fabric retailers.
He also requested for the criteria and dispensation for retailers to apply for permits to import school uniform, and what determined the duration and validity of such permits.
DAILYNEWS
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