Expensive school uniforms in South Africa – what parents can do about it
With schools preparing to open up for a new year, the topic of costly school uniforms is again emerging as a stress point for parents who are already under immense financial strain.
Reports of uniforms setting parents back thousands of rands have again drawn the attention of school governing body associations. Speaking to 702, the general secretary at the National Association of School Governing Bodies, Matakanye Matakanye, said that parents are not powerless when it comes to combating higher prices, however.
Matakanye said that issues around high school uniform prices over the years led to the publishing of a national guideline on school uniforms by the Competition Commission in 2021.
According to Mia de Jager of Adams & Adams, in January 2017, the Competition Commission launched an investigation into allegations of anti-competitive behaviour in the supply of school uniforms.
The investigation was prompted by complaints from parents and school uniform suppliers, she said. “Parents felt that school uniform suppliers charged excessive prices. They were able to do so as they essentially had a captured market.
“Smaller suppliers felt that they were being excluded from competing in the school uniform market as a result of long-term exclusive supply agreements between schools and selected suppliers. The problem, as the Commission later unearthed, was pervasive.”
The commission ultimately found that long-term exclusive supply agreements enabled school uniform suppliers to charge customers higher prices. This also prevented other potential suppliers from entering the market and competing for customers.
“A consequence of such agreements meant that customers were limited to only sourcing school uniforms from one supplier, leaving them exposed to suppliers potentially charging monopoly prices,” de Jager said.
In an attempt to cure the harm caused by the exclusive supply agreements, the commission signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Governing Body Foundation, the National Association of School Governing Bodies, the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools and the South African National Association of Specialised Education.
The commission also created guidelines for pro-competitive school procurement, which Matakanye said is still in effect.
Broadly, the guidelines include the following:
- School uniforms should be as generic as possible such that it is obtainable from more than one supplier;
- Exclusivity should be limited to items that the schools regard as necessary to obtain from pre-selected suppliers, for example, badges and ties.
- Schools should follow a competitive bidding process when appointing suppliers for school uniforms and learning-related items; and
- Supplier agreements should be of limited duration and not for excessively long periods. At the end of the contract a new competitive bidding process must be pursued.
Matakanye said that even though the guidelines are not a law, the MoU stipulated that all school governing bodies would determine their uniform policies in line with the guideline. As such, if parents find that their school is not abiding by these rules they can:
- Report the government body to the competition commission;
- The commission will then investigate and see if the policy is in line with the guideline;
- If the commission finds against the governing body then the respective process follows.
A former governing body member, also speaking to 702, said that parents are also able to get a petition going and approach their school’s body to have the uniform policy reviewed. Working with the governing body and other parents, petitioners can successfully have uniforms and procurement processes altered.
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