By Neo Kolane
Workers at two Ace Apparel (Pty) Ltd factories located at Ha Maqele in Maputsoe were on Thursday last week left stranded after their management locked them outside.
Speaking with theReporter, the secretary general of the National Clothing Textile and Allied Workers Union, Tṥepang Makakole said the employer, Vishan Clothing, instructed the management to shut down the factories until the government has answered when the workers will get their severance pay.
Makakole said the severance pay is from the previous investor who vanished last year without paying the workers their salaries for December, as well as other benefits.
One of the workers, Pulane Lekhanya, said no one from management had bothered to provide the employees with any explanation regarding the closure of the factories.
Lekhanya also revealed that the workers went on strike last month in protest at late payment of salaries.
She said sometimes they do not receive their full salaries, like this month when some of them received slashed wages.
The factory made headlines in December 2023 when its then owners pulled a fast one on workers by absconding and abandoning them without pay for December and other benefits.
The company was owned by a group of Afrikaners who reside in Rosendal, a small farming town in the Free State province but would commute to Maputsoe daily.
This is yet another setback to government’s efforts to bring Lesotho’s ailing clothing and textile industry back on its feet and save jobs.
Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC) chief executive officer interim Molise Ramaili last following the disappearance of the investor said they made sure no equipment would be taken out of the premises until the workers received their terminal benefits.
LNDC engaged a new investor, Vishan Clothing, to run the factory.
According to the Lesotho Labour Council (LLC) approximately 20,000 workers have lost their jobs in the clothing and textile industry since 2019. About half of these were retrenched in 2023.
The sector, which is the second largest employer after the government, continues to perform poorly largely owing to declining orders from the United States, the major importer of Lesotho’s apparel.
Devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are also still being felt as desperate local firms close shop or lay off employees for months on end hoping that the industry will gradually pick up. But this is unlikely, experts say.
