ANA reports that the African National Congress (ANC) on Monday expressed its relief that thousands of direct and indirect jobs had been saved after financially troubled retail group Edcon reached a deal with creditors.  

Edcon has secured R2.7 billion in new cash and rent deductions as part of a recapitalisation plan.  The ANC in Western Cape concurred with the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) that the agreement had averted a “job massacre” in the clothing industry.  Provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs said:  “We in the Western Cape know from bitter experience how devastating job losses in the clothing industry can be.  Our once thriving clothing industry is gone, and with it the jobs of thousands of workers who worked in Woodstock, Salt River, and Observatory.”  Edcon, the largest non-food retailer in SA, which owns Edgars, Jet, and CNA, has been struggling for the last few years in the face of cheap foreign imports and a move by consumers to e-commerce.

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