Dalisu Mhlengi Mkhize and Lawrence Mpele Lekhanya
This paper examines factors influencing the competitiveness of small and medium clothing manufacturing enterprises in the eThekwini municipal district in KwaZulu-Natal. SMEs in the clothing manufacturing industry remain at lower competency. This seems to be the act caused by the lack of knowledge and an understanding of the factors influencing their competitiveness (Lekhanya & Visser 2016). The study aimed to determine and examine factors influencing the competitiveness of SMEs and describe their influence among SMEs in the clothing manufacturing industry at the eThekwini Municipality District of KZN. The data was collected from different parts of eThekwini municipality which includes Durban central, South Coast of Durban, North Coast of Durban, and west parts of Durban. The sample consisted of 80 SME owners and managers of the clothing manufacturing companies who are members of the national bargaining council for clothing manufacturing industry at the eThekwini District. The research design embraces a quantitative research approach; a closed-ended questionnaire was distributed to the participants by the researcher. Due to the lockdown restrictions posed by COVID-19 (coronavirus), which resulted some participants restricting visitors, arrangements were made with those participants who do not allow visitors on their premises to complete questionnaires online, therefore, questionnaire were sent to them through emails. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 for Windows.