A school bag costs R600, for a school jersey you will part with R450, a school dress roughly R600, grey pants R150, sports t-shirt R350 and quality school shoes at least R399. These are the basic needs of a school going child in South Africa. This is just over R2500, enough to be shared amongst five children who receive the child support grant.
Parents have expressed their concerns and say that they are overwhelmed with the rising costs of school uniform. They say they are dissatisfied with suppliers who are appointed by schools to exclusively sell school uniform -stating that the suppliers are taking advantage.
Different parents and caregivers from different provinces across the country, have expressed their concern. They say that the inflated school uniform prices place a burden on their finances.
Zintle Godlo from Gauteng in Pretoria, has one daughter and she has expressed that “prices are absurd.”
She pays R350 for one school t-shirt that is required and she needs to buy at least three of those in order for her daughter to be comfortable for the whole week. Her concern is that school uniform suppliers take advantage and explained that in her experience, buying uniform in December is still not being smarter because the prices are already inflated.
“In November, we don’t have the money to prioritise buying uniform because at that time, other things are still a priority. Another problem that we are faced with is that after spending all the money at the beginning of the year, we still need to buy the same clothes again the following year because the children grow taller and bigger etc,” she said.
Another parent, Paroeska Syca who lives in in Cape Town, Western Cape, with her two children, says she spent R3400 on stationery for both of them.
“Thank goodness I still have school uniform left from last year because a school dress for my 9-year-old daughter is R450 and this price goes up per size. Generally speaking, though, I do think that the suppliers are ripping us off and there is nothing that we can do about it because children need to wear the correct school uniform,” she said.
Another parent Dieketseng Seiphetlho from the North West town of Klerksdorp says she’s found ways of saving when it comes to her two children.
“I only spent R600 for my daughter’s uniform that I buy at Marabastad in Pretoria, but for my son – whose uniform is sold at an exclusive supplier appointed by the school – things are very expensive. His school jersey alone costs R450. These suppliers are extremely expensive,” she explained.
Tshidi Ntsalong who is a parent residing in the Free State province in Bloemfontein, is shocked that the hike in prices for school necessities, matches that of petrol and food.
“What makes the uniform even more expensive is the fact that we buy it under pressure, especially in January during “back to school” time. Perhaps the solution is to find the cheaper alternatives in school uniform, but sometimes the quality is bad,” she said while expressing her dissatisfaction.
Meanwhile, in 2021, the Competition Commission reached an agreement that schools should abandon exclusivity deals with suppliers, but seemingly has still not been implemented.
According to its Principal Analyst, Karabo Motaung, the commission has already received over 200 complaints from parents over the exorbitant uniform prices by school uniform suppliers.
“I think the commission is now at a point where we feel we have done our advocacy work. We have gone out and educated schools and everyone around this conduct, but there are still schools that are found to be contravening the Competition Act. We were not interested in prosecuting schools for this act, that is why we chose the advocacy route, but going forward schools who continue with this act will be prosecuted,” she said.
Motaung is calling on all the parents who are left with no choice but to purchase school uniforms at an exclusive service provider to lay complaints by sending an email to ccsa@compcom.co.za or by sending a WhatsApp message to 084 743 0000.