No happy new year for school uniform monopolies

Therefore, a uniform does not just instil a shared vision among children, but represents a sense of belonging, equality and mutual advancement across race and class differences. Imagine if school uniforms were to be discontinued and children allowed to dress to their hearts' content.

Many parents overindulge and overcompensate - the word "no" doesn't exist in their vocabulary. Children can be slaves to fashion and in no time school grounds would be flooded with expensive labels and brands.

Children of low-income or struggling parents would then become the biggest casualties of this fashion avalanche - there would be peer pressure and bullying. Sadly, this might result in all sorts of psychological effects, leading to poor health and drop-outs.

story_article_left1

Yet, many schools seem to be indifferent to the plight of those parents who have to face artificial obstacles imposed by the continuation of anticompetitive, exclusive agreements. For a long time now, a huge financial burden has been placed on parents through the introduction of designated exclusive suppliers of uniforms.

In these arrangements, competition is shut out. Where there is no open and competitive tender process, costs hit the roof. These costs, among many other things, compel financially squeezed parents to pull their kids out of school. Thus, they have to compromise the quality of their kids' education.

This goes against the ethos of equality and inclusivity at school.

The Competition Act enjoins us to "provide for markets in which customers have access to, and can freely select, the quality and variety of goods and services they desire".

Unfortunately, agreements that are entered into without any competitive bidding substantially prevent and lessen competition, thus causing financial disadvantage to parents.

Although the Competition Commission, working with the national Department of Basic Education, the provincial education departments and school governing body federations, issued circulars against the practice in May last year, our investigations reveal that the habit may still be widespread. The commission has endeavoured to be accommodative and granted the various parties enough time to terminate these arrangements, some of which were indefinite.

We have seen lots of progress at tertiary level, where universities terminated exclusive agreements and procured academic attire and related material through competitive bidding to encourage competition.

The opening of the tender process eliminates uniform costs as a barrier for parents when they have to choose schools for their kids. This is particularly important for South Africa because apartheid, through myriad institutionalised, restrictive and discriminatory practices, foreclosed black people from virtually all spheres of meaningful life.

block_quotes_start In the face of continued defiance, the commission will have no option but to apply its enforcement powers. block_quotes_end

Further, many of the schools that are involved in this practice are outside traditional black areas, and raising uniform costs to a premium, through unilateral appointments of designated suppliers, imposes another hurdle to entering these schools. Importantly, these parents already have to bear more costs to transport their children.    

Crucially, there is a whole host of small and medium-sized enterprises, whose owners may be parents at these schools, who are denied an opportunity to compete for business. If the school uniform market is opened up to competitive bidding, uniform costs will certainly go down and the quality of the clothing will improve. With vigorous competition come massive incentives for companies to improve efficiency and product superiority and introduce competitive prices.

In our quest to develop a competition regime aimed at reforming anticompetitive practices and ensuring an inclusive and transformative economy, the commission wants to work with all its key stakeholders, including SMMEs and consumers. The aim is to create an enabling environment in which enterprises thrive and consumers realise the rewards.

Thus, it became critical that before we came down like a ton of bricks on schools that we heightened collaboration, awareness and compliance, particularly among SMMEs and consumers. Mindful of the short- and long-term implications of the decisions we take, the commission adopts a dynamic view of enforcement.

This has been our approach on this matter since we received the first complaint in 2010. We engaged with education departments, provincial and national, and issued warning circulars. The commission met various governing bodies, schools and principals that were in breach.

In the face of continued defiance, the commission will have no option but to apply its enforcement powers. When this eventually happens, penalties will be severe.

Bonakele is the commissioner of the Competition Commission