S Africa plans to revive sluggish clothing industry

MAITLAND, South Africa, Jan 17 (AFP): South Africa is fighting to revive its frayed clothing industry, once a crucial provider of jobs in a country suffering from high unemployment, as a flood of cheap imports forces local factories to shutter and lay off workers.

Once the economic lifeblood of many small regional towns, the abundance of cheaper products from China has led to the loss of nearly two-thirds of the sector's jobs over the past two decades.

"After being employed for 22 years we were informed that the factory would close down in eight weeks," said Vimla Padayachee, 46, who lost her job three years ago. The clothing factory in Verulam, north of the port city of Durban, shut down after years of battling low demand for its products.

"A person of my age is not likely to get another job again, and so are my colleagues," she said.