The COSATU-affiliated Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers' Union (SACTWU) voiced its deep concern about the serious damage that the recent looting in KwaZulu-Natal and elsewhere has caused to workers and their families.

In Isithebe, a brand new clothing factory (Kingspark Manufacturers) which was set up only in September last year, has been completely destroyed. Machinery and raw materials have been looted. In the process, 600 much-needed jobs supporting 3000 family members in the poorest part of the country are now lost, in this instance alone.

In recent times the management and workers of Kingspark have been successfully participating in an innovative workplace productivity collaboration pilot project - to test and demonstrate the international best practice intervention by the International Labour Organization's Score program. However, the recent incident has negated all their hard work.