Technology is changing our world in a massive way. The fast-fashion, labour-intensive production will eventually turn into capital-intensive production with the pending arrival of sewing robots and automation.
Are we ready to deal with the eventual impact of sewing robots and smart factories as a country very much reliant on labour intensive production?
Not only are these going to hurt our economy but we are powerless to even protect ourselves from it because truth be told robots are cheaper and more efficient, faster and never get sick like we do.
Why then will western countries keep outsourcing production to third world countries when cost of production is no longer cheaper in Africa?
The model is already inconvenient with the amount of kilometres products have to cover in the form of raw material exported to Africa only to be re-imported as finished ready for market products.
Adidas already runs a smart factory in Germany for their footwear and it is only a matter of a few years before this spills over into apparel. Meantime, we are investing in new factory shells that are designed to house hundreds of workers.
Are we even aware of the changes that are coming as a country to be proactive or is it going to be a hurricane we never saw coming? Why would American Brands that are currently feeding us and our families need to keep production here when machines can just do everything there?
What impact is this going to have on our already drowning economy that cannot even afford mere payments to government suppliers? Those +-40000 jobs in the Lesotho textile industry, where are they going to be absorbed?
The sewing robots featured in a 2018 wall street article have the potential to create chaos never seen before in this landscape.