…as another company sends 600 workers on unpaid leave
Tokelo Khausela
The Minister of Trade, Industry, Business, Development and Tourism, Mokhethi Shelile, says government is devising a plan to avert the alarming job losses which continue to rock the textile sector.
Mr Shelile’s comments followed Sun Textiles’ decision this week to send 600 workers on unpaid leave for a period of five months, in yet another calamity to hit Lesotho’s clothing industry.
The company, which was opened in Ha Thetsane in 1995, had been struggling to pay wages since the beginning of this year, with management attributing the firm’s financial struggles to dwindling demand for its products.
Minister Shelile, who did not particularly address the Sun Textiles issue when he briefly spoke to the Lesotho Times this week, said the government would soon address the challenges facing the country’s textile sector.
“Speaking with international suppliers or buyers is a persuasive exercise. The prime minister (Sam Matekane), while addressing a rally in Maputsoe, said orders are there and this is true. But to start hiring people to process the orders means there’s a procedure to follow. The first step is checking samples and agreeing on the prices, after which buyers are then obliged to bring people that are going to inspect the factory to assess if it is in a favourable state to produce the products,” Mr Shelile said.
“If we are lucky, the process may take six months. The order he (Premier Matekane) spoke about is in process and it is a big order. It will bring back 30 000 jobs that have been lost.”
Meanwhile, Sun Textiles is the latest textile company to pay the price of the industry’s heavy dependence on a single market for its products.
Lesotho’s textile industry is heavily reliant on American buyers, thanks to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to United States (US) markets. Lesotho has been an AGOA beneficiary for the past 23 years after signing the agreement in October 2000.
However, the country’s textile industry has not been performing well for the past three years largely due to declining orders from the US. The situation was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought the world to a halt when it struck almost four years ago, damaging global economies and putting many companies out of business.
Many countries are still reeling from the effects of the virus, hence the dwindling orders from the US.
And to escape economic ruin, Lesotho textile factory owners, most of them of Asian descent, have been closing shop and leaving for countries such as Bangladesh, which do not rely on a single market to survive.
In addition to the 600 workers sent home by Sun Textiles this week, other companies have been systematically laying off employees, or reducing their working hours and ultimately their wages, as the textile sector hurtles towards a very bleak future.
According to the National Clothing and Textile Workers Union (NACTWU) deputy secretary-general, Ts’epang Makakole, the situation remained dire in the textile sector. The union, he added, was in talks with Sun Textile management on the unpaid leave, which he confirmed began on Tuesday this week.
“Sun Textiles workers have been told to go home and return when orders have been placed. Without orders, there is nothing we can do,” Mr Makakole said.
Global International Garments, a subsidiary of Nien Hsing Textile Group, is another company which has since reduced its staff’s working hours in a bid to avoid a complete collapse of the organization.
The move has adversely affected the workers’ take-home pay, and they also risk losing their jobs completely unless the company’s business prospects change for the better.
The Nien Hsing Group has already closed several of its subsidiaries over the last few years, leaving thousands of Basotho without jobs.
The group now only has two remaining operational subsidiaries, namely Formosa Textiles and the embattled Global International Garments. However, these two also face peril unless new markets materialise.
Nien Hsing Group boss, Ricky Chang told the Lesotho Times on Tuesday this week, that his organization was facing its worst ever financial situation. The group first closed its Glory International Subsidiary in 2020, leaving 1500 workers jobless. Two other subsidiaries, Nien Hsing International and C&Y Garments, were closed last year, making a combined 5400 workers redundant.
“I am in consultation with other stakeholders to reach a decision; we will just see what decision to take after the consultation. For now, I cannot disclose much as the meetings will drag for two to three weeks. Only then will I be at liberty to fully comment,” Mr Chang said.
