A perilous position

Severe job losses in Lesotho’s textiles sector will affect women disproportionately — and not just because they constitute the majority of the sector’s workforce. Women are already most affected by poverty and a host of other social ills, including HIV/Aids, says National University of Lesotho nursing science lecturer Mamotsamai Ranneileng.

Apart from giving women an income to fend for themselves and access health services, employment at the factories has helped them address their primary health-care concerns, as health services were brought to their places of work by the government and other health-care providers. With largescale retrenchments, Ranneileng is concerned that women will be now be unable to access the healthcare services they require.

For his part, Lentsoe La Sechaba Workers

Union secretary-general Mohaneng Mokaoane warns that the retrenchments may fuel genderbased violence (GBV).

As it stands, violence against women is endemic in Lesotho, where UN Women estimates that one in three women and girls have fallen victim to abuse. It’s a scourge that costs the country about 5.5% of GDP a year, according to a September 2020 report by the Commonwealth of Nations and Lesotho’s department of gender, sports & recreation.

Though Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro has acknowledged the extent of the problem — and its cost to the country — no clear government programmes or plans have been articulated to deal with the scourge.

“GBV is likely to spike in many households as retrenched women will no longer be able to contribute to the household income,” Mokaoane warns. “Once their income dries up, they will no longer be [considered] as valuable to their husbands as before.”