Textile outfit retrenches following Zim imports ban

Another local textile company has retrenched workers after the Zimbabwean government banned importation of textile products into their country in order to resuscitate their own depressed textile industry.

Mmegi reported that the company, Puma Trading (Pty) Ltd trading as Bolex Weaving Mills, confirmed the job cut in a telephone interview with Mmegi yesterday.

Following unfavourable market conditions that were mainly caused by the Zimbabwe authorities' decision to ban textile imports in order to safeguard their local garments industries, the company moved to retrench.

Bolex finance manager, Mohan Pratapa told Mmegi that they have reduced their workforce of about 40 workers to around 20.

The main reason for reducing staff and production, Pratapa explained, is due to "poor sales because of the new law implemented in Zimbabwe that bans the imports of blankets for 24 months effective from September 1, 2015".

Pratapa said their woes are also compounded by the fact that their customs agreement with the government does not allow them to sell their blankets in the local market hence their current predicament.

He said: "We import raw materials from overseas then process them into blankets, which we then sell to SADC countries such as Zimbabwe and Zambia, but we import 99% of our blankets to Zimbabwe".

The depressed manager said that all their workers are Batswana save for a few scarce skills cadre that is not readily available in the country.

He said that they retrenched their workers in phases stating that the last batch of workers they let go left the company last December.

A former employee of Bolex showed Mmegi his notice of non-renewal of contract dated November 18, 2015.  He said that he was happy for what the company did for him, however, was left with no choice but to job hunt.

"If you experience things like this there is no use to keep

on pointing fingers, but to look for another job.  I was retrenched from work because of factors that are beyond the control of my former employers," said the former worker, who requested anonymity.

According to a Zimbabwe newspaper, The Herald, the Zimbabwe textile and leather industry has taken a serious battering following the adoption of the American dollar as one of the currencies that are used there.

The influx of textile products from other countries forced a lot of similar companies to collapse which then prompted Zimbabwe's Minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa, to enforce wide economic measures that would reduce competition between imports and locally produced products.

The move to implement the measures followed great pressure from the Zimbabwe Clothing Manufacturers Association (ZCMA), which lobbied the government to impose a ban on textile imports.  ZCMA said they were heavily compromised by cheap goods from Asia, especially China and secondhand clothing from neighbouring Mozambique, according to The Herald.

The paper added that Chinamasa was not wrong to impose the new measures since the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement has a safeguard clause that protects small industries from heavy competition from imports.

Bolex's move to cut its workforce follows 90 retrenchments that took place at Nortex Textiles due to economic pressures fuelled by the weaker rand in March.

In April, another textile manufacturer based in Tonota near Francistown, B&M Garments (Pty) Ltd, cut 300 jobs at the beginning of the year saying that it was struggling to get out of the woods and may be forced to totally shut down operations or further reduce its workforce if the economic situation does not improve.