Cape Town - The Western Cape clothing behemoth Rex Trueform could possibly close its doors this week due to a R60m loss over six years because of cheap imports from China.
But the closing of the factory will not only leave its 1 000 workers jobless, but spells financial destitution for the those who was working for a tidy retirement package.
Reginald Carelse, who worked for Rex for 26 years, is one of them.
But his package is not to be as he, along with the rest of the factory staff, are to be retrenched in the new future.
A devastated Carelse is facing an uncertain future because he does not think that he and his wife can survive on a small retrenchment package.
"I've been working for the company for twenty six years and three months as a presser and now they are kicking me out," he says.
He only discovered that he was to be retrenched when he returned from two weeks' sick leave to learn that he no longer had a clock-in card.
"They are not saying anything about my retirement, they only tell me that my money will be deposited by Saturday. Why do I suddenly have to leave just like that?
"I want my proper retirement package and I will be satisfied with that," he says.
Carelse is one of 1 000 workers to be retrenched at one of the oldest clothing manufacturing companies in the country.
Rand pressure
A few weeks ago the company made a sudden announcement that it would close shop due to pressure from the strong rand and an influx of cheap Chinese imports.
At 65, the ailing Carelse is ready to take a long, well deserved rest, but the same cannot be said for his colleagues, many of whom are young and still have many years of work ahead of them.
A visit to the factory revealed a nervous staff and union representatives who did not know how to answer the workers' questions.
Shop stewards said it was uncertain how long the company still planned a production run, but workers were still reporting for duty.
"Workers are despondent and angry about all this uncertainty," a shop steward said.
Workers are also blaming the shop stewards for the uncertainty on the shop floor.
"They accuse us of knowing beforehand about the retrenchments because management made the announcement straight after a meeting with us. They never gave us the chance to speak to our members," said the shop steward.
The Western Cape government has taken up the plight of the workers in pledging to find a solution to a disaster which many believe signals the beginning of the end of the clothing and textile sector.
"This industry is dying and it is all because of imports. I have a son in Grade 6 and I'm recently divorced.
"How am I going to take care of him?" asks Vijoana Daniels.
She has been with the company for 24 years and did not expect to be retrenched.
Like a second home
"I don't know what I will do outside of Rex Trueform, I don't have much of an education but I worked myself up from a machinist to an office clerk.
"There is no work outside. The industry is dying because of imports. I hope government will do something about these imports," said Daniels.
Daniels says she is willing to take to the streets to protest over the Chinese imports.
"This is my saddest time ever at Rex Trueform, it was like my second home."
Daniels has witnessed jobs decline at the factory since 1974 - when she was one of 5 000 workers.
"I survived all the retrenchments and traumas through the years. Twenty years ago South Africa had leading clothes manufacturing industry and we exported, now we import.
"We used to work for places like Marks and Spencer and Daks of London," she recalled.
The Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) general secretary, Ebrahim Patel, describes the imminent closure of Rex Trueform as a "symbol of an industry in crisis".
"It has its roots in a couple of factors - the strong rand and a general reduction in tariffs and China's emergence as a major player in the textiles and footwear industry.
"All of these issues have forced the industry to the brink of extinction. But, there are alternatives to redress the situation," he said.
SA dropped tariffs too fast
Patel believes South Africa dropped tariffs too fast, in fact faster and lower than required by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
It is widely believed that government should have secured industrial policy measures to upgrade and modernise the industry before reducing tariffs.
"We reduced tariffs without preparing the industry for the shock and the result was that instead of the industry becoming competitive, companies are collapsing," said Patel.
Sactwu has had a long-running battle with retailers whom it believes has a duty to source local products.
The union wants the retailers, Edgars, Truworths, Foschini and Woolworths to commit to boycotting sweatshop-produced goods and buying at least 75% of their inventory from local manufacturers.
Retailers last year reported a record combined pre-tax profit earning of R8bn.
"That is extraordinarily high at a time when employment has dropped by more than 76 000 (workers)," said Patel.
The union said the sector had shed nearly 100 000 formal jobs in the last 10 years, 17 000 in the past 12 months and 800 in January this year.
The union also thinks the way to combat the buoyant currency is to drastically drop interest rates and to de-value the rand.
"The key lies in a de-valued currency. A strong currency is not always a good thing - it can mean that you are pricing yourself out of the market.
Real rates too high
"If the currency is too high in relation to other currencies you may price yourself out of global markets.
"China has done the reverse by pricing themselves into global markets by weakening their currency.
"Imports from China therefore become cheaper while exports to the US become more expensive. That is the fundamental problem to deal with in the long run.
"Government also has a role to play in terms of reviewing policies that underpin the strong rand and therefore the Reserve Bank has to come to the party. Real interest rates are too high," said Patel.
Government needed to act decisively against China, he added.
Patel said Chinese imports of clothing grew by 104% last year. He also makes a case for WTO safeguard measures which helps countries protect their industries.
"It's time to balance geo-political considerations with socio-economic ones. Government is perhaps too sensitive to China's importance in trade and other talks and there's perhaps too much Cupertino with China without realising the price the local economy is paying.
"We need to tell the Chinese that our market is too small for them to focus on. That requires a determination by government to say to the Chinese government the basis of friendship and co-operation between countries is that you don't enter our markets with the speed and the kind of level that you've entered the South African market.
?It is causing the utter collapse of local industry, " Patel said.
A stitch in time
Saving the industry, however, does not lie on the shoulders of business and government alone.
"Workers have a role to play. They can go for re-training, accept the need to benchmark ourselves with the best in the world and to move our production into the kind of quality and fashion content that you'd associate with the best performers in the world," Patel concedes.
"We need to rethink the technology and retraining of workers."
Meanwhile, back at the Rex Trueform factory, shop stewards are at a loss for words for their colleagues.
Sactwu is in talks with the company but the company declined to comment on these talks. The Labour Relations Act stipulates that unions have the right to demand financial details on why the company wants to close shop.
"The company tabled a fresh set of financial information which is materially different to what they initially tabled in their notice to us," said Patel.
The parties are scheduled to meet again this week. Perhaps a stitch in time can save 1 000 jobs.