1 000 MORE TEXTILE WORKERS TO LOSE JOBS -MP

LOBAMBA – Another 1 000 workers from the textile sector are set to lose their jobs in two weeks’ time.

This was alleged by Kwaluseni Member of Parliament (MP) Mkhosi Dlamini yesterday, who informed Prime Minister (PM) Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini that employees of Matsapha Knitwear had already received letters from the company informing them that they would lose their jobs by December 18, 2014.

The MP informed the PM and his colleagues in the House of Assembly that the factory was terminating the workers’ employment because of the loss of the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA).

This was during the debate of a motion raised by Manzini North MP Jan Sithole, who wanted the PM to give a progress report on what government was doing to ensure that Swaziland met all the benchmarks before the December 31, 2014 AGOA deadline. MP Mkhosi further alleged that other companies were also threatening to close using the AGOA loss as an excuse.

“Knitwear employees have already received letters informing them that their employment will be terminated by December 18, 2014 and this will affect over 1 000 workers just like Tex Ray which closed down a month ago,” alleged MP Mkhosi.

The MP said other smaller companies in Matsapha were also retrenching employees under the pretext that it was due to the loss of AGOA. He alleged that they had also stated that their employees would not be paid Christmas bonuses because of the eminent loss of AGOA by the end of the year. “The companies are taking advantage of this situation and we hope that government can do something,” he said.

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