Each year, the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES) hosts at least four African visiting scholars as part of its lecture series. These scholars are invited to share their research projects, which focus on communities on the African continent.
On 24 June 2021, CAES welcomed visiting scholar, Prof Lucy Maliwichi, an academic associate in the Department of Life and Consumer Sciences at Unisa.
Maliwichi’s research interests include the use of consumer science skills (clothing production, nutrition and resource management) in generating household income, the role of small-scale businesses in poverty alleviation and food security, sustainable smallholder agriculture and development, indigenous knowledge systems and training programmes for small-scale business traders.
Maliwichi highlighted the role of small clothing manufacturing businesses in creating employment and generating income in the Limpopo province. In particular, she reported on a study conducted in the Nzhelele and Thohoyandou sub-districts of Vhembe, which sought to identify the types of small-scale businesses that households create for self-employment purposes, the challenges they face and the types of assistance they receive from government and/or non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The extant body of literature on small clothing manufacturing businesses in South Africa was used to compare local contexts and roles to those of similar businesses across Africa.
The findings indicated that households were involved in diverse types of small-scale businesses, which are predominantly artisanal or agricultural in nature, or have strong links to the field of consumer sciences.
The problems identified in these communities included a lack of capital, limited marketing skills, competition from large businesses, and cheap, imported second-hand clothes flooding the market. Also noted was a lack of capacity to meet customer demands, poor or no business infrastructure and poor credit repayment by clients. Another identified problem pertained to a skills shortage regarding the designing and making of different types of garments.
The proposed solutions include expanding these entrepreneurs bookkeeping and record-keeping skills, as well as their product management and marketing skills. Also, to identify a gap in the market for their products and guiding them in securing funds to purchase equipment such as industrial sewing machines.
In general, such communities would greatly benefit from decision-making skills training. To that end, government and NGOs should be approached to support skills training for the owners of small-scale clothing manufacturing businesses, and to invest in both formal and non-formal education programmes.
* By Gugulethu Ncgobo, Admin Marketing Assistant, College of Agriculture and Enviro
Publish date: 2021-07-05 00:00:00.0