The ANC welcomes the recent consent agreements signed by the Competition Commission with several schools and major manufacturers to reduce school uniform prices for some parents.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding school uniform prices and procurement in South Africa was signed after the commission had successfully prosecuted and entered into consent agreements with four schools and two of the country’s largest manufacturers. The settlements required school uniform suppliers to remove exclusive agreements with uniform suppliers and to introduce more generic uniform options.
The commission had found that exclusive arrangements between schools and uniform suppliers were pervasive across the country and these made uniforms unnecessarily expensive and increasingly unaffordable for many South Africans.
The three key principles of school uniform policy in the MOU were: To educate and raise awareness on anti-competitive procurement or sourcing practices; Addressing Anti-competitive Procurement Processes and Monitoring of Compliance which focuses on efforts to encourage all member schools to make formal commitments through their school policies to practice pro-competitive procurement.
We call on all school governing bodies to heed these principles as this will go a long way in helping cash strapped parents.
