Workers’ unions petition PM

Three workers’ unions have expressed concerns about the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) `s prospects in Lesotho.


In a joint statement petitioning the Prime Minister on Sunday in Maseru, the three trade unions namely NACTWU, Lentsoe la Sechaba and IDUL stated that the Government has not progressed towards full implementation of the SADC decisions as per the request by Michael Froman for Lesotho to be considered for AGOA eligibility.

Speaking on behalf of the unions, Mr Sam Mokhele of NACTWU explained that despite the numerous missions of high level delegations of the Kingdom of Lesotho and the United States government to assure the United States of Lesotho`s progress on AGOA eligibility compliance, the last two visits in November by US Trade Representatives have indicated that Lesotho has not yet met the AGOA eligibility criteria.


He said they are aware that the US Government has on numerous occasions met with Lesotho government to discuss the prospects of AGOA, and referred to the visit by Flory Liser, the US Trade representative, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ms Linda Thomas-Greenfield as well as inthe visit by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Southern Africa and Public Diplomacy Todd Haskell.


Mr Mokhele warned that the sluggish implementation of the SADC Decision will lead to disqualification of Lesotho as AGOA beneficiary and thus affecting 40, 000 jobs in the textile industry that will be lost directly. He added that the textile industry is the second largest employer in the country.


“Losing AGOA will have far-reaching immediate negative consequences for the workers employed by AGOA and EU dependent factories, the families and dependents of these workers who are estimated at 120,000, Small Micro and Medium Enterprise operators who depend on them for custom on a regular basis, landlords from whom many of these workers rent accommodation”, he lamented.


In the petition letter, the tripartite union formation stated that it has embarked on its mission with the support of academia, business, civil society organisations, labour, transport organisation under the Alliance of Non-State-Actors (ANSA) and political party youth leagues.