“The role of the PSA is to stimulate demand and to enhance the availability of quality products. This will enable us to take our rightful place in the world as the gateway to Africa. Let us be the place where people come when they look for locally made products,” says Eustace Mashimbye, CEO of Proudly South African.
It is part of overcoming the triple challenges of inequality, unemployment and poverty, he adds. “In 2002 the clothing, textile, leather and footwear industry boasted 200,000 jobs. In 2017 that number had been reduced to 90,000. In 1996 there were 1,600 manufacturing plants in the country, in 2016 there were only 900.”
“In South Africa, a job supports five to six people in this country, if not more,” he says.
Manufacturing has gone from contributing almost 21% of the GDP in 1994 to 12.4% in 2015. “This is because we started to buy goods made outside the country. In fact from 2002 to 2006 the country has seen an increase in imports of 400%,” he explains.
The PSA boasts 1,200 companies with 8,800 products. “We would like to have all of these on the site. We have to make this a success, but I am confident that we will not fail because of the quality of our members’ products,” he says.
PSA members’ products must be of a high quality, traded in a fair way and the majority of their content must be of local origin. “When these criteria come together it contributes to the wellbeing of the country,” says Howard Gabriels, Chairman of the board, PSA.
He says the site is a deliberate step to develop new ways of doing business in South Africa. “Today is a mark in the road for us. It is important for us and our members to be in the online space and in time this will become an acknowledged channel for their products.”
The platform already concentrates exclusively on South Africa made items, so it made perfect sense for it to partner with PSA says RSA Made’s CEO Karamba Jabbie. “We feel that we have found a perfect partner in Proudly South African. We are so excited to see the online shopping site being populated slowly, but surely.”
The site works on the same basis as any other online shopping store, with a simple product selection and check out sequence, with door to door delivery within 48 hours within the country’s borders. Delivery for purchases over R500 is free.
The site is the first of its kind in South Africa built to assist small, medium and even large local businesses to sell more using only South African suppliers and service providers.
For a Proudly South African online shopping experience visit www.rsamade.co.za
