Maqelepo orders probe into textile factories protest

…as he demands real-time information on factory closures and short-time arrangements

TRADE and Industry and Business Development Minister, Motlatsi Maqelepo, has ordered the Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC) to investigate a labour dispute at Precious Garments after workers demonstrated outside the factory premises on Monday over reduced working hours, wages and delayed payments.

The workers say they have been working only two weeks a month since July, resulting in them receiving two weeks’ wages instead of their full monthly salaries.

They also claim that they subsequently approached management seeking an advance on their severance and long-service benefits to help settle mounting household bills, but became frustrated after their request was not addressed timeously.

Maqelepo told the Lesotho Times this week that Monday’s demonstration had exposed shortcomings in the flow of information between factories, the LNDC and his ministry.

He said he had directed the LNDC to intervene in the Precious Garments matter while also acknowledging the need for his ministry to receive information about major changes at factories in real time.

“I have asked LNDC to take care of that situation but I feel like we should be informed ahead of time about any challenges or changes that take place within our firms,” Mr Maqelepo said.

He said his office needed to be notified about decisions such as placing workers on short-time or closing production lines so that the government could understand the reasons behind such decisions and respond to problems before they escalated.

“I think I should put in place mechanisms to enable my office to be informed of changes in real time from our parastatal, LNDC,” he said.

The minister said the situation had also made him question information provided by industrialists about the state of the textile industry.

According to Maqelepo, some manufacturers have told the government that they had substantial orders and, in some cases, were turning down additional business because they lack the financial resources to meet demand.

He said an inter-ministerial task team involving his ministry, the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Home Affairs had recently exposed several challenges facing industrialists.

However, he said the government should also confront factory owners about complaints raised by their employees.

“While hearing their challenges out, we should also be positioned to confront them about what is being reported about them, such as allegations made against them by their employees so that we iron out all those issues while in such meetings,” he said.

Mr Maqelepo warned that the government would have little reason to retain poorly performing companies in industrial spaces when there were potential investors seeking to establish businesses in Lesotho.

“It would therefore be unreasonable to keep people who are hiring people on a short-term basis claiming they do not have orders, yet they are occupying factory space. It would be strange to retain such people without sound reasons being given.”

He said there was a pipeline of prospective investors, particularly in the textile sector, who were approaching both his ministry and the LNDC and were being assessed for eligibility.

“We have a pipeline of interested investors, especially in the textile industry who regularly reach my office as well as LNDC who are being vetted for eligibility showing a huge potential for our industry,” he said.

AGOA uncertainty

The dispute at Precious Garments comes against the backdrop of continuing uncertainty over Lesotho’s access to the lucrative United States market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Lesotho’s textile industry has been heavily dependent on duty-free exports to the US market since 2000, making the future of AGOA a major concern for manufacturers and thousands of workers employed in the sector.

AGOA provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to the US market for more than 1,800 products, in addition to more than 5,000 products covered under the Generalized System of Preferences.

The programme came under renewed threat following the return of Donald Trump to the US presidency in 2024 and his administration’s push for sweeping tariffs on trading partners under its “America First” policy.

AGOA was subsequently extended in 2026, with the current authorisation running until 31 December  this year.

Mr Maqelepo, however, said there were indications that discussions in the US could result in a further renewal, although the process still had to pass through the US legislative and executive processes.

“The information we have established is that right now there is a possibility of AGOA renewal,” he said.

He said Lesotho was lobbying in the US to ensure that its interests were represented while also negotiating a new form of trade relationship that would provide greater benefits to both countries.

Mr Maqelepo said one of the options being explored was for Lesotho to import cotton from the US, process it into fabric locally and manufacture finished products such as jeans for export back to the American market.

“We are working to establish a beneficiation arrangementin favour of America in the trade deals we are forging forward,” he said.

He said such an arrangement could create additional jobs in Lesotho while giving the US greater value from its own raw materials.

Mr Maqelepo said the extension of AGOA would provide breathing space for Lesotho to conclude its negotiations with the US while also allowing the country to diversify its export markets.

“We cannot deny that the US is a huge market for us and has been a reliable and available market for a long time but we also see a growing market in the apparel sector happening in the Southern African region,” he said.

He said Lesotho should also target growing markets in Southern Africa and Europe instead of remaining overwhelmingly dependent on the US.

Factory defends short-time

Precious Garments manager, Lengana Tšepe, said the decision to place workers on short-time had been forced by difficult trading conditions following the imposition of US tariffs and the resulting pressure on the company’s costs.

He said the factory had entered into arrangements with affiliated companies to reduce transportation costs by jointly contributing towards shipping containers carrying raw materials from China.

“We had to partner with other affiliates to bring down transport costs by jointly contributing towards a container. We were not sharing orders, just the containers but were coordinating with one another to ensure the orders are shipped within the same timelines,” Mr Tšepe said.

He said the arrangement had reduced the amount of work available to individual factories, forcing Precious Garments to reduce its employees’ working hours.

“As a result the workload on one firm reduced as the little work was being distributed among these affiliates, that is why we had to place our employers on short-time,” he said.

Mr Tšepe said workers later requested advances on their long-service and severance payments, but the request was delayed because the company’s senior management is based in Taiwan.

“Unfortunately, that demand was not responded to on time by our top management which does not reside in Lesotho but in Taiwan,” he said.

He said management had since asked the workers to return to work while their concerns were being addressed.

“We want workers to appreciate that for the employer to disburse such large amounts of money is a process that would take some time. We have therefore since asked them to return to work in the meantime, while management is working to address their concerns,” he said.

Mr Tšepe further denied that the company was sharing orders with other factories, saying the companies were merely pooling resources to reduce the cost of importing raw materials.

“We had to partner with other affiliates to bring down transport costs of raw materials from China to Lesotho by contributing payments to containers. Once the raw materials arrive, they are taken to those other firms we jointly ordered with,” he said.

He said Precious Garments had been receiving fewer orders and attributed the decline partly to international instability.

“We have since been receiving low orders since the war in Iraq started and that is the reason we placed workers on short-time,” Mr Tšepe said.

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