Clothing Textiles Footwear Programme

Clothing, Textiles, Footwear and Leather Growth Programme (CTFLGP)in South Africa

The Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Programme supports growth in South Africa’s clothing, textiles, footwear, leather, and leather goods manufacturing sectors. The Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Programme helps manufacturers improve competitiveness, expand production capacity, and strengthen value-added processing. It gives targeted grant support to businesses and clusters that want to improve operations, increase productivity, and build stronger manufacturing performance.

What the Programme Covers

The Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Programme focuses on manufacturers in the South African clothing, textiles, footwear, leather, and leather goods sectors. It aims to help these industries become more efficient, more competitive, and better positioned for long-term growth. The programme also encourages stronger local production and supports the development of value-added processing from local raw materials.

The Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Programme places strong emphasis on improving the performance of businesses across the sector. It supports interventions that help manufacturers modernise operations, strengthen skills, improve products, and reduce operating costs. This makes the programme valuable for businesses that want practical support for upgrading their production and improving market competitiveness.

The Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Programme has two main parts. These are the Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Improvement Programme and the Production Incentive. Each part supports sector development in a different way.

The Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Improvement Programme supports improvement projects that help businesses and clusters become more competitive. The Production Incentive supports manufacturing value addition through grant funding linked to production performance. Together, these two components create a broader support system for companies in the sector.

Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Improvement Programme Grants

The Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Improvement Programme offers targeted grants to both individual companies and clusters. Individual companies can access grants of up to 65% for approved interventions. Company clusters can access grants of up to 75%. This higher level of support encourages collaboration between businesses that want to improve sector performance through shared initiatives.

The improvement programme supports actions that strengthen competitiveness in practical ways. These actions include upgrading and expanding capital equipment, improving productivity, enhancing employee skills, improving products and production processes, reducing costs, and subsidising interest payments on debt. These interventions help manufacturers strengthen operations and respond more effectively to market demands.

Production Incentive

The Production Incentive forms another important part of the Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Programme. This incentive provides grants pegged at 7.5% of an individual company’s manufacturing value addition. The purpose is to reward and support businesses that contribute to local manufacturing output and sector development.

This incentive can help manufacturers reinvest in operations and improve their productive capacity. However, the Production Incentive does not apply to goods manufactured for the automotive sector when that sector already qualifies for its own incentive programme. This keeps the support focused on the intended industries within clothing, textiles, footwear, leather, and leather goods.

Cluster Development

The Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Programme strongly supports cluster development. The programme uses cluster formation as a way to encourage joint improvement activities across the value chain. A cluster may consist of similar manufacturing entities or of a broader value chain group that includes manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers.

This approach encourages cooperation between businesses that share common goals. Instead of improving in isolation, companies can work together on solutions that improve the wider sector. This model can strengthen supply chains, improve efficiency, and create wider industry benefits.

The programme divides clusters into two categories. An ordinary cluster includes at least five manufacturing companies or a combination of manufacturers and related organisations such as retailers, design houses, and component manufacturers. These members work together to achieve common and mutually beneficial objectives.

A national cluster operates through coordination by a national structure. This type of cluster allows wider sector participation and supports larger collective initiatives. In both cases, the programme expects member organisations to commit financially to the activities of the cluster. This commitment helps ensure that the cluster remains active, focused, and properly supported.

Legal Structure and Governance of Programme Clusters

Clusters under the Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Programme must operate as separate legal entities. They register as not-for-profit companies, which creates a proper legal and regulatory foundation for financial management and project implementation. This structure supports transparency, accountability, and stronger governance in the use of grant funds.

By using this model, the programme creates an organised framework for managing shared projects. It also helps ensure that cluster activities remain focused on sector improvement rather than private gain.

Local Value Addition

The Programme also aims to maximise production capacity development and value-added processing of local raw materials. It begins with cotton and gradually extends its focus to other natural and synthetic fibres. This objective supports broader industrial development by encouraging local beneficiation and stronger domestic manufacturing linkages.

By supporting local raw material processing, the programme helps reduce dependence on imported inputs and promotes stronger value chains within South Africa. This can create more jobs, increase industrial activity, and strengthen the long-term sustainability of the sector.

Preference Areas in the Clothing, Textiles, Footwear Programme

The programme gives preference to cluster projects that follow world-class manufacturing principles. It also favours projects that take a holistic approach to improvement. This means the strongest projects usually address all four intervention elements, namely people, process, product, and market development.

A holistic approach helps businesses improve in a balanced way. It is not enough to improve machinery alone if skills, product quality, and market positioning remain weak. By encouraging a full improvement model, the Programme helps create stronger and more competitive manufacturing businesses.

Why the Clothing, Textiles, Footwear Programme Matters

The plays an important role in supporting manufacturing sectors that contribute to employment, local production, and industrial growth. It gives businesses access to grant funding that can reduce the cost of improvement and expansion. It also promotes collaboration, value chain development, and better use of local raw materials.

For manufacturers in clothing, textiles, footwear, leather, and leather goods, this programme offers a practical opportunity to improve competitiveness and grow more sustainably. Businesses that understand the programme requirements and prepare strong applications can place themselves in a far better position to benefit from this support.