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Johannesburg - Brimstone subsidiary Canterbury International SA (Cisa) is launching an awareness campaign to educate the public about the downfalls of buying counterfeit Sprinbok rugby products.
This comes as Cisa - the official Springbok kit manufacturer, which holds the rights to the Canterbury brand for Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands - found that 80% of supporters' items sold in South Africa were counterfeit and sold through the informal sector.
In a statement, Dave Linder, the managing director of Cisa, urged consumers to understand that the illegal practice of buying garments at traffic lights had negative consequences for South African rugby and the local clothing manufacturing industry.
"By buying counterfeit items, supporters are effectively hampering the game of rugby in SA. Canterbury wholeheartedly supports rugby in this country and pays a royalty to SA Rugby for every item sold. Counterfeit products do not pay any royalties and deprive Canterbury and SA Rugby of revenue which it in turn needs in order to develop the game in SA," says Linder.
Springbok jerseys, caps and scarves are amongst the most counterfeited products, but while supporters can differentiate between fake and genuine products by looking for the Canterbury CCC and Springbok logos on genuine products, some counterfeiters have managed to copy both.
Genuine articles are only available at licensed Canterbury retailers like Total Sports, Sneakers, Sportsmans Warehouse, Edgars, Mr Price Sport and independent retailers. They will also be sold at Canterbury's own soon-to-be launched outlets.
'Supporting crime'
Trade union Cosatu is also concerned about the implications counterfeit goods has on job creation in the beleaguered local clothing manufacturing sector, which has shed thousands of jobs as it has struggled to remain competitive over recent years.
"Local job creation also suffers as a result of the purchase of counterfeits, since a significant percentage of these products are made in SA. We call on the public not to buy counterfeit goods as this practices destroys jobs, which is against what we are trying to achieve," said Cosatu's Western Cape provincial secretary, Tony Ehrenreich.
"Counterfeit purchases also support crime," said Linder, who noted that the fake goods are illegally imported and distributed and therefore evade both customs duty and value-added tax (VAT).
"Counterfeiting registered trademarks, smuggling and tax evasion are all obviously criminal offences."
Cisa manufactures "a significant portion" of the Springbok kit locally at its factories in Parow and Somerset West, and has signed agreements with Cosatu and the SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) which will see all Springbok products being manufactured locally within two years.
- Fin24