The KwaZulu-Natal National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) calls on the Minister of Sport and Recreation Comrade Fikile Mbalula to rescind the 2012 Olympics kit deal signed by SASCOC and a Chinese company called ERKE.

We refuse to see our Olympic Team donning a kit made in China, whereas the kit could have been made or manufactured in our own country.

Even worse, the very same players are expected to wear or don this kit, and will be doing so with shame in their faces.

However had the kit been made or manufactured in South Africa, it would provided enough employment or a meal for a family that is in dire need as a result of poverty and loss of employment in the manufacturing industry.

This deal by SASCOC and ERKE is not only a insult to the government’s efforts to stimulate the procurement of local goods and services, but a direct attack to the national consensus or priorities of creating and defending existing jobs in the clothing, textile and footwear manufacturing sectors.

We fully agree with the assertion of the CEO of Proudly SA Adv. Lesley Sedibe, when he says, “the excuse of lack of funding given by SASCOC raises a number of questions: If the Chinese have enough national pride to have a Chinese company, ERKE, make their national kit, why can we not support our own local clothing manufacturers?

Why let ERKE manufacture the SA kit?

Yes, ERKE sponsors SASCOC, but they have also received funding from the Department of Sport and the Lotto, among others”.

We support the call by our federation, COSATU, that the deal must be cancelled and the contracts for the kit to be given to Proudly South African companies, so that the athletes can wear them with real pride.

We call on ally and sister union, SACTWU, to exert its mass power for this deal to be rescinded in the interest of their members.

Contact: Mbuso Ngubane

Regional Secretary
Cell: +2779 502 3242
Tel (dir): +2731 301 0284

Source

Numsa Press Release