Event Summary
On 31 October 2025, Lesotho’s “Big Six” trade unions held a mass protest to address the severe economic challenges facing the textile industry, the country’s largest private employer. Workers demanded accountability from the government regarding the uncertainty of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) renewal and the lingering impact of punitive US tariffs, which threatened thousands of jobs. The unions also sought redress for long-standing grievances, including unsafe working conditions and the government’s failure to secure severance pay for roughly 1,500 workers abandoned by factories like Ace Apparel.
The police initially denied the permit for the protest planned for October 31, 2025, citing “crucial omissions” in their application. The unions denounced this denial stating that the cited “omissions” are not required by the Public Meetings and Processions Act and called the denial an “administrative obstruction” and the “continued suppression of the right to peaceful assembly and protest”. The march ultimately proceeded, after intervention of the Police Minister granting the permit and under tight police surveillance, with army roadblocks searching all vehicles on major roads leading to the capital city. However, the government response evolved into a form of political victimisation targeting the union coalition.
A letter dated 7 November 2025, from the Prime Minister’s Office Chief of Staff Sofonea Shale, acknowledged the unions’ grievances but sought to introduce division. Shale requested that union leaders indicate whether their union’s grievances should be addressed “under the framework of the march” versus those engaged through “negotiations,” effectively forcing members of the coalition to publicly declare whether they stood with the protest action or opted for dialogue. This was perceived as an attempt to exploit perceived internal differences, an attack on the principle of collective union action, and a move to potentially retaliate against those unions who insisted on continuing the march.
Similar limitations on the right to peaceful assembly have been observed in Lesotho since the current administration assumed power in October 2022, including a similar denial of protest permit to deliver a petition to the Prime Minister in September 2025. In July 2025, a youth protest was halted when police issued a permit with the wrong date, which organisers denounced as deliberate sabotage and the administrative manipulation of protest procedures.