Zakumi and Cup apparel letting down SA industry

Feb 9, 2010 

By Judith King, by e-mail  Timeslive:

Judith King, by e-mail: The Congress of South African Trade Unions has expressed outrage that the Zakumi 2010 Fifa World Cup mascot is being made in China, saying that "huge profit will be made by exploiting low-paid Chinese workers while South African workers miss the chance to get new work".

The condemnation is gratifying, but limited.

Why is Cosatu, and more particularly the South African Clothing and Textiles Workers' Union, silent on revelations that much of Bafana Bafana's supporter apparel is being made in China, Mauritius and Pakistan?

This disturbing fact was uncovered by clothing research agency ReDress and cited in a Business Report article last week.

A moderate amount of public concern has been aired about it through various media channels, but one would have hoped for a more vociferous campaign, given that our clothing and textile industry is in shreds and our people desperately need jobs.

Surely the market for fan-wear is much larger than that for the mascot?

Cosatu has called on all South Africans to boycott 2010 "made in China" products, but makes no specific reference to requirements for apparel manufacture.

The South African Football Association and our departments of trade and industry and economic development should all be held accountable for not supporting our clothing industry.

We've been cheated out of a massive opportunity to take something authentically and sustainably prosperous out of the World Cup bid.

The building work is all but over, Fifa has colonised all kinds of entrepreneurial activity in South Africa for its own ends, but our clothing and informal sectors could have been revived and many small and medium-sized businesses and marginalised people - particularly women - could have been truly empowered by these contracts.

Julius Malema, can you help?