Cape Town – The Competition Commission South Africa is warning schools and suppliers that it will prosecute those not complying with the law pertaining to the pricing of school uniforms.
This comes after a large number of people have been complaining about the increasing prices of school uniforms as a result of schools using different suppliers.
The commission has recommended schools to stimulate market competition by amending contracts with suppliers who may produce one-of-a-kind pieces of clothing, such as blazers or tracksuits.
Speaking on SAfm, the Competition Commission Khanyisa Qobo, divisional manager for advocacy, said that this is the advocacy they will be campaigning on every year until they get to the level of compliance that they feel will be acceptable.
“We are seeing improvement overtime and last year in 2022 we did site visits twice across the country in public schools in rural areas and schools in urban areas interacting with school principals and members of the SGBs.
“We also undertook a survey last year to test the levels of compliance, so we are seeing great improvements and greater awareness about the guidelines and some procurements and the increasing levels of compliance but certainly a room for improvement,” Qobo said.
She further said that as the commission they have noticed that certain items in the school uniforms which are typically sold within certain suppliers and schools can have their own supplier as the law doesn’t prohibit that but what they are encouraging where there is a single supplier should be competitive procurement that contracts must be reviewed not being evergreen just to introduce competition in the system.
“We see that single suppliers typically sell unique items, so we encourage more competitive procurement and periodical analysis of suppliers,’’
“We understand that due to efficiency, volumes and scales, some schools may not have their unique items being sold to multiple retailers.
“The bulk of compliance of higher prices depends on the unique school items such as blazers and track suits,” she said.
She further said what they are encouraging for parents is to engage with the school and be active with the school’s governing structures so that they can influence such decisions of school uniforms and supply so that they can come up solutions and complain about such issues.
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