A dedicated face mask marketplace went live on the Proudly South African (SA) website on Friday. This follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement which ordered all passengers travelling on public transport to wear a mask. He also recommended that citizens should wear a non-medical mask outside their homes.
Proudly SA CEO Eustace Mashimbye said the initiative was designed to assist South Africans to source locally made fabric face masks. Proudly SA has been working on the site over the past week.
“This initiative is an effort to support a sector of our economy that is able to meet the current pressing demand for face masks.which we have been called on to wear in order to support the government’s efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19” said Mashimbye.
“It is imperative that we support our local businesses, who have the capacity to produce sufficient masks to meet the country’s needs.
The initiative will also enable the SA’s clothing and textile sector to retain jobs during lockdown. The concept of the portal arose from the discussion with the SA clothing and other textile companies.
He called on all corporates and retailers to use the portal to source their masks and to liberate any medical grade stock back to essential services.
“In order to help consumers, select masks, the portal also provided a link to fabric mask guidelines published by the Industry and Competition. The site displays the details of the manufacturer, pictures of the masks, the company’s production capacity per week and unit costs,” said Mashimbye.
Corporate buyers and consumers can visit https://www.proudlysa.co.za/covid_19/covid_19.php# while manufacturers wishing to register on the portal can email their interest to bongani@proudlysa.co.za
