Africa-Press – Lesotho. Even though different sectors in Lesotho will have a pinch from the United States (U.S) imposed tariffs, the textile sector has and will continue to suffer more from this transition.
In April President Donald Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on Lesotho due to what he called trade imbalance between the two countries. Reports have indicated that in 2024, Lesotho exported $237 million (M4, 203,230,644.80) in goods to the U.S. mostly garments while the U.S. exported just $3 million (M53, 195,394.00) to Lesotho.Textile sector has for the longest time been the major contributor to Lesotho’s economy particularly in terms of employment and exports as it employed about 40,000 people.
The textile sector has been sluggish since 2019 with the world feared COVID-19 as most factories started retrenching workers due to low orders from the U.S as the main buyer.
However, things turned even more south since President Trump took to the Whitehouse as among others Lesotho got slapped with the highest tariff in all African countries.
With fear of the imposed tariffs, several factories in the country have resorted to engage workers in lay-offs in which workers go to work in fortnight shifts, though this might seem like a temporary solution while waiting for the government to meet with President Trump to plea for reduction of tariffs, it is more stressful because workers most who are breadwinners do not know if they are going or coming.
In an interview, a devastated Ms. Nthabeleng Moeketsane who came to the capital city 15 years ago and have since been working at one of the factories in Ha-Thetsane says from last month (June) things have been very hard as she had only two weeks to go to work, which means half the M2,300 in wages.
She said this is very little to cover her monthly expenditures which include rent, food, school fees and insurance.She said she is barely coping with the half wages such that she is even thinking of going to South Africa because the two weeks that she does not go to work, she is idly saying if she had money she would be selling commodities like cigarettes.
She expressed more fear with the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) expiry date approaching saying she is devastated because by the look of things, chances of AGOA being renewed are very slim.
Another Mrs. ‘Marethabile Lepekola who was retrenched around November last year by one of the factories in Maputsoe said she had hoped that by now she would be working but that faded away when the U.S introduced tariffs.
“I lived in hope since last November when I got retrenched that this year, I would get a job as the government had promised that more investors will flood the country and factories open in numbers but that seems like a dream never to reach.
These tariffs have shuttered the little hope I had because now investors are running away,” she said.Moreover, a street vendor ‘Matlhompho Jobo who has been operating at the Thetsane industrial area for over 15 years said the business is very bad now that most of the workers are home.
She said she used to go home with over M500 daily saying now she makes about M200 or less in a day.
She appealed to the government to work on opening more factories saying that their lives would be better once opened because they depend on factory workers.Echoing the same sentiments, 4+1 driver Mr. Bafokeng Khabo sitting inside his cab at the Thetsane industrial said that business has been very bad saying that things have turned worse in the past months.
He said back in the day, he would make around M600 in which M300 he would give to the owner of the taxi while M200 was for petrol and M100 for other things like traffic fines.
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