South Africa: Competition Commission probes school uniform industry

The South African Competition Commission says its report into the school uniform industry will bring about change so parents can have access to reasonably priced uniforms.

The Commission instituted investigations and conducted a survey into the US$15 million industry after receiving complaints about the high prices last year.

The Commission’s Sipho Ngwema says that the report reveals anti-competitive behavior where there are agreements with a number of schools and a single supplier. Ngwema says that according to the investigation, anti-competitive behavior and the high prices of school uniforms is in private schools.

“And we discovered that there’s a number of schools who are still involved in anti-competitive behaviour and in fact it was about 30% of the schools, particularly the former Model C and private.”

He says the Commission also plans to enforce the Basic Education Department’s circular, which states that school uniforms should be as generic as possible so it’s available from multiple suppliers.

Full Content: TimesLIVE

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