Factory workers to march as Lesotho’s textile jobs hang by a thread

General secretary of the United Textile Employees Solong Senohe told a press conference that workers would march at the end of the month. Photo: Sechaba Mokhethi

• Lesotho’s “Big Six” trade unions have announced a mass protest at the end of the month to defend jobs in the textile and clothing industry.
• Thousands of jobs are threatened by punitive tariffs imposed by the United States and uncertainty over the future of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which gives eligible African countries duty-free access to US markets on some goods.
• The unions say there is no evidence that AGOA will be renewed despite assurances by trade minister Mokhethi Shelile.

Lesotho’s textile and garment industry workers are gearing up for a mass protest later this month to defend thousands of jobs threatened by uncertainty over the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the 15% tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.

The protest, set for 31 October, was announced by a coalition of trade unions at a press conference in Maseru last week. The unions said they would petition the governments of Lesotho and the United States to renew AGOA and reduce reciprocal tariffs to 10%.

The coalition, known collectively as the Big Six, consists of the United Textile Employees, Textile and Allied Workers Union, Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho, Lesotho Workers Association, National Clothing, and the Construction, Mining, Quarrying and Allied Workers. Members of smaller unions will also take part.

Union leaders say their grievances go beyond AGOA. They accuse the government of making “empty promises” to resolve the crisis facing factory workers, including cases of factory owners who disappeared without paying employees.

In December 2023, two South Africans who owned Ace Apparel in Maputsoe, Lesotho’s second-largest industrial hub after Maseru, vanished, leaving about 1,500 workers unpaid. The workers lost both their monthly salaries and terminal benefits.

In early 2024, a Durban-based investor, Vishan Clothing, took over the factory and paid the workers their December salaries, but their severance pay remains unpaid nearly two years later.

By the end of 2023, the Minister of Trade, Mokhethi Shelile, announced that the government had traced the Ace Apparel owners to the Netherlands and would extradite them to face justice. But nearly two years later, union leaders say nothing has come of those promises.

“It has been two years now, and we still do not know what will happen to the workers who were left stranded by that factory,” said Tšepang Makakole, general secretary of the Economic Freedom Trade Union (EFTU). Makakole told GroundUp in an earlier interview that this is not the first incident of this kind in the clothing and textile sector, following the absconding of investors in the past, including those of Lesotho Umbrella, Peter Blond, and CMT Trading factories.

The union leaders now accuse the government of “coming empty-handed” from recent AGOA renewal talks in the United States, despite Trade Minister Shelile’s assurances that the trade deal would be renewed for at least another year. “There is no evidence to prove that AGOA will be renewed,” Makakole said.

AGOA, which allows duty-free exports of hundreds of goods from eligible African countries to the US, officially lapsed on 30 September 2025, and there is still no clarity on the way forward.

With frustration mounting, unions say they are now left with no choice but to take to the streets.

Makakole said the unions had waited for feedback from Lesotho’s delegation that visited the US to discuss AGOA’s renewal, but received none.

“We only heard on the radio that the discussions were productive, but there’s no evidence AGOA will be renewed. When we realised none of our complaints were being addressed, we decided to go ahead with the protest,” he said.

Makakole added that the unions were also disappointed by the failure to reduce the punitive 15% tariffs, which the government had promised to negotiate down to 10%.

The unions have called on all factory workers, small business owners, and communities whose livelihoods depend on the garment sector to join the protest.

“We call on the government of Lesotho and US legislators to urgently secure an extension of AGOA under fair and inclusive terms,” the union leaders said. “Without renewal, Lesotho faces economic instability and a potential collapse of its key export Industry.”

They said the imposition of US tariffs had already damaged Lesotho’s textile sector, leading to factory closures, job losses, and widespread hardship.

“These tariffs disproportionately harm women and youth who make up most of the garment workforce, and have plunged many families into poverty,” the unions said.

“Workers who once supported their households can now barely afford rent or food.”

The unions warn that if their concerns are ignored again, the 31 October protest will mark the beginning of a nationwide campaign of industrial action aimed at pressuring both the Lesotho and US governments to protect Lesotho’s fragile textile industry, the country’s largest private employer.

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