Why on earth would a SA person give you a hard time about donating clothes???

Thanks again for all your help ladies. I'm thinking I might sell a few of the almost brand new stuff on Gumtree, give some to a couple of mums from my eldest son's class who are having babies, and anything else to charitable organisations
SA often gets treated as a dumping ground. They get stuff that is not sale worthy at all. The volunteer workforce has been drastically cut in the last thirty years so many stores are now paying for staff. By the time they pay for premises, staff, legal dumping of the junk they cop, and pass it on through sales, their stuff ends up costing more than it would new.

These charities are actually the ones doing US a favour, not the other way around. That'd be my guess.