Stakeholders rebel Mwijage’s mitumba ban

But Mwijage’s mitumba d-day approaches without signals of his backing down from the infamous decision he had made to the detriment of the industry that clothes the overwhelming population short of a developed textile industry, despite condemnation of the move emerging from the both local stakeholders and the neighbouring politicians.

As he mulls over what to do with the business of the second-hand clothes, stakeholders say the move is an anti-thesis to market economy principles, asserting the need for a competent textile industry whose high quality products would automatically wipe out the mitumba business.

Presidents John Magufuli, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagame of Rwanda had agreed to have the plan implemented in a stretch of three years, giving the traders a grace period.

But Mwijage was quoted earlier in the week as telling reporters in Dodoma that the government was determined to kill the second-hand textile business, alleging it amounted to a “broad daylight theft of consumers’ money” by the traders.

Though the minister was short of elaborating details on the alleged theft, he was quick at warning the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) and Fair Competition Commission (FCC) saying he would take them to task if they failed to get Tanzania rid of the second-hand clothes on Friday.

“I think the government should invest in factories that produce quality clothes if it wants to discourage the second-hand clothe market. People prefer the quality in mitumba clothes as opposed to poor one out of the local fabrics,” said Deogratius Martin, a trader of female wears at Tandika market.

He says most of his clients are fond of mitumba, not because of the prices but because of quality of the outfits and uniqueness in style that hardly matches someone else dressed in the same attire.

“Someone dressed in something bought somewhere else outside the mitumba is likely to encounter a lot of other people dressed in the same way as if it was a uniform; this discourages buyers who then opt for mitumba,” says Martin.

“I’m not quite sure if Mwijage was serious given the EAC leaders’, including his president’s decision to postpone the move to provide local investors a wide room to adopt with the new conditions,” the Confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI) economic expert, Hussein Kamote said, adding that the minister’s resort was “uncalled for as the regional heads of state had given an extended time of up to 2018.”

He dismissed the decision as groundless, saying Tanzania’s and the regional textile industries were too poor to dress their people with decent outfits, not to speak of the regional market.

“We have a plan of up to 2018 as agreed by EAC heads of state to fill in the gap,” he explained, saying that to establish a factory takes 3 to 4 years, “so imposing a ban at this moment would be prematurely immaterial for a country whose population depends heavily on mitumba.”

He suggested a new culture of textile production be adopted before taking measures to kill the industry. He said textile plants in Tanzania and the region should shift from producing bed sheets and khangas to more sophisticated wears to replace the mitumba products.

But he also decried the government’s failure to ensure outfits of high quality standard entered the local market, saying the substandard clothes promoted the demand for mitumba.

He suggested Tanzania to take a leaf from the neigbouring Uganda, saying it has a little advanced on textile industries to the extent that some local traders were decisively changing routes from China and Turkey to Uganda.

“Uganda now a viable supplier of preferable outfits. I pay frequent visits to Uganda now, a shift from China,” said Dina Kokugonza, a resident of Segerea. “They’ve quality cotton clothes preferred by my consumers.”

The EAC heads of state reached a decision to halt the ban on mitumba after learning that there were eminent fears that it would leave thousands of families without clothes.

A joint communiqué by the member states also proposed a complete ban on exports of raw hides and skins outside the trade bloc in a move meant to save the local industries suppressed by the influx of the used commodities from China, Europe and America.

“The summit, being desirous of promoting vertically integrated industries in the textile and leather sector, directed the partner States to procure their textile and footwear requirements from within the region where quality and supply capacities are available competitively, with a view to phasing out importation of used textile and footwear within three years,” read the statement released in March.
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