‘illegal’
Thuli Nhlapo Ignoring the Congress of South African Trade Unions’s (Cosatu) campaign to create and sustain jobs in the textile industry, the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) promotional clothing is imported and believed to have entered the country illegally.
Shereno Printers, which won a contract to print 100E000 T-shirts for IEC staffers to wear in the run-up to the local government elections, confirmed that it does not manufacture T-shirts in South Africa and does not print them at its premises. The company donated two banners, desk pads and pens to Cosatu’s congress, and printed its constitution and resolutions. Shereno, a sponsor of Cosatu’s national congress, does not have equipment on its premises to print garments. The IEC’s tender document specified that tendering companies must have the equipment. Shereno director Niran Singh said the IEC T-shirts had been imported, but could not specify from which country. “The guy who helps me with the printing of T-shirts is the one who imports them.” Singh said he did not know how much had been paid for on custom and excise duties. Last year Shereno Printers supplied the IEC with second-grade T-shirts for the national election and PriceWaterhouseCoopers conducted a forensic audit into the matter. The IEC’s deputy electoral officer, Glen Mashinini, denied there was a forensic audit. He said the first batch Shereno supplied was rejected after failing to meet South African Bureau of Standards grades. Mashinini said Shereno then supplied them with “quality” T-shirts. Andre Pienaar of PriceWaterhouseCoopers visited factories involved in last year’s IEC contract. One of them was Pitco- Enterprise in Boksburg, which was then awarded a contract to print 200 000 IEC T- shirts.
On the question of the authenticity of the Shereno bill of entry for the T-shirts, Mashinini said: “Our records do not show that the T-shirts had been imported and no bill of entry was required for the delivery of T-shirts at that time.” In an attempt to save massive job losses in the textile industry, Cosatu launched its buy local campaign in support of its affiliate, the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union. Cosatu’s 3 000 red caps and T-shirts that delegates wore at the national congress were locally manufactured. At the South African Communist Party congress last year, angry delegates flung their caps at their leaders when they discovered they had been made in China. But Picto-Enterprise insists that a “made in South Africa label” does not say much about the manufacturer. “The issue of cheap illegal imports of garments is more serious than most companies, trade unions and government departments are willing to admit. Some of the T-shirts are imported without labels and labelled ‘made in South Africa’ to legitimise them,” said the company’s marketing director, Tshepo Kgadima.