Rethinking Textile and Apparel as a Sunrise Industry in South Africa: Technological Innovations and Catch-up Industrialisation

The South African textile industry as it stands today does not have the textile base to support localisation or regional value chains. The country’s spinning capacity is low, with just two firms that sell yarn, and the weaving segment is also very small and not geared towards fashion. There are more knit mills, but many of them are quite small and produce low quality fabric. Dyeing capacity is also an issue, as many knit and woven mills do not have their own dyeing facilities and there are only a few standalone dyehouses. While several textile mills have started investing in new machinery that can produce more fashion fabric and fabric of a higher quality, the size of investments to date is not on a level that is going to have a significant impact.