E-ISSN 2281-4612 ISSN 2281-3993 Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies www.richtmann.org Vol 10 No 6 November 2021 122 . Research Article © 2021 Sipho Mbatha. This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) Received: 27 July 2021 / Accepted: 7 October 2021 / Published: 5 November 2021 Competitive Advantage Threats and Opportunities in the South African Clothing, Textiles, Leather, and Footwear (CTLF) Industry Sipho Mbatha Department of Design Studies, Tshwane University of Technology, Staatsartillerie Rd, Pretoria West, Pretoria, 0183, South Africa DOI: https://doi.org/10.36941/ajis-2021-0159 Abstract Despite the employment and competitive advantage decline experienced in previous years, the South African clothing, textile, leather, and footwear (SACTLF) industry is still a significant contributor to the country’s manufacturing sector. To restore employment figures last seen a decade ago in the industry, the SACTLF has to explore competitive advantage threats and opportunities, among others. To explore competitive advantage threats and opportunities in the SACTLF industry, a leading SACTLF retail group and two leading clothing manufacturers’ associations (representing over 100 CTLF organisations) were purposefully sampled and interviewed. Emerging from the transcripts is that the low rate of innovation and lack of access to manufacturing inputs are the main competitive advantage threats. Strengthening quick-response time and localisation emerged as competitively advantageous opportunities. This article’s findings show that the SACTLF industry has the potential to develop a competitive advantage. The findings of the study contribute new knowledge to the literature. Keywords: Quick response, competitive advantage, lead time, industrial policy, and Porter’s diamond model 1. Introduction The South African clothing, textile, leather, and footwear (SACTLF) industry is battling to regain the competitive advantage lost to global competitors more than a decades ago. Wang (2014) defines competitive advantage as a stage in which a firm develops a set of attributes or factors that make it possible to perform much better than its competitors. Scholars argue that the SACTLF industry lost its competitive advantage due to several issues, including low investment in manufacturing infrastructure (DTI, 2010); poor technological systems (Das, Hunter & Botha, 2017); insufficiently advanced skills (Mbatha & Mastamet-Mason, 2018; Mbatha & Mastamet-Mason, 2015; Das, 2011); unsophisticated domestic value chain (Morris & Barnes, 2014; Das & Hunter, 2015). The competitive advantage decline was arrested by a range of government grants and incentives implemented since 2007, after the development of an Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). IPAP posits the SACTLF industry as a priority industry for government support (DTI, 2007; 2010; 2014; 2016). Morris and Barnes (2014) highlight a competitive advantage development among 59 SACTLF manufacturers assisted by the government and apparel retail groups that showed quick-response