A mother who had to pay R7,000 for school uniform breathed a sigh of relief after the Competition Commission declared that schools should appoint more than one supplier of uniforms so that parents can be introduced to more generic uniform options.
Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding with school governing bodies (SGB) to strengthen regulations on the procurement of school uniforms and other learning materials.
The mother of a grade 6 pupil at Curro in Midrand said they were only allowed to buy uniforms from a shop in Halfway, Midrand, where everything was overpriced.
“For instance, a pair of socks is R100, a T-shirt is R280 and you pay R300 for a skirt and there are winter and summer uniforms. At least this new agreement means that we can get uniforms a lot cheaper,” she said.
Another parent said her grade R son, who goes to Nova Pioneer Primary School in Pretoria, had to pay more than R2,000 for just for two golf T-shirts and two shorts from an outsourced school uniform shop.
The commission said it had been inundated with complaints from 2010, with parents protesting about the widespread practice of schools signing exclusive supply agreements with pre-selected suppliers.
Last year the commission saw an escalation of such complaints, which were linked to the requirement for learners to wear school-branded items, which also include personal protective equipment such as face masks, hand sanitisers and technological gadgets for e-learning purposes.
“We found that uniforms were unnecessarily expensive and increasingly unaffordable for many South Africans. Several schools were overly prescriptive in their uniform choices, which again limited the choices and bargaining power of parents who were beholden to a small number of suppliers,” said Bonakele.
Bonakele said the commission had successfully prosecuted and entered into consent agreements with four school groups and two large manufacturers and suppliers of school uniform to remove exclusive agreements with uniform suppliers and to introduce more generic uniform options.
The memorandum of understanding aims to advocate for schools to comply with competition law, promote compliance among schools and assist the commission with the resolution of complaints by parents regarding non-compliance of specific schools.
Schools have to comply with the following guidelines:
– School uniform should be as generic as possible so as to be obtainable from many suppliers.
– Schools should preferably appoint more than one supplier so as to give parents more options.
– Exclusivity should be limited to items that the school regards as necessary to get from pre-selected suppliers.
National Association of School Governing Bodies general secretary Matakanye Matakanye said: “This time we want to equalise the role players. As much as education is perceived as equal, education must be accessed by everybody. I am happy that parents will be able to access cheaper school uniforms.”
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