00:00Rows of sewing machines stood idle at clothing factories in Newcastle
00:05after xenophobic protests drove thousands of migrant workers out of South Africa.
00:10Reuters visited three factories in late July,
00:12whose owners said they had lost between 12 percent and 19 percent of their workforce during the protests.
00:18Factory owner Alex Liu said some of the workers had sewing skills that were in short supply.
00:23We can't immediately replace this skill with locals. It takes time. And we were not prepared.
00:34The vacancies follow months of anti-immigrant marches and vigilante attacks against foreigners in South Africa.
00:41The campaign, led by an anti-immigrant group called March & March,
00:45sought to free up jobs for South Africans, a third of whom are unemployed.
00:50Employers here counter that they mostly employ South Africans,
00:53but need some experienced garment sector workers from neighboring Eswatini and Lesotho.
00:58Liu said the shortage could cripple businesses.
01:00I think they are on the edge of shutting down.
01:03But simply because I think at the moment everybody's wait and see, see if they can survive.
01:11The Southern African Clothing and Textiles Workers Union estimates that 15 percent of Newcastle's
01:1515,000 strong textile workforce left during the protests.
01:19Another factory owner, Rongwa Yan, started a training course for seven local employees
01:25after losing about 40 foreign workers in June.
01:27I started asking people if they're willing to be trained, be skilled workers.
01:33This week I already got eight, seven people. They applied to be training.
01:39So I started training. So it's benefit for them, also benefit for my company in the future.
01:43But he says many young South Africans balk at the difficult work and low wages.
01:48It's not easy because I don't know the, maybe the people, young people,
01:53they are choosing to do the, you know, the comfortable job in my mind.
01:58Local people looking for the nurse, looking for the cash,
02:02because the textile, the clothing business is tough.
02:05You know, you're sitting nine hours on the bench is not easy.
02:09You know actually.
02:10Even there's construction.
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