MINISTER WINNIE LIED TO PARLIAMENT

Minister of Labour and Social Security Winnie Magagula taking an oath during her swearing-in at Parliament. (File pic)

MBABANE – The Embassy of the United States of America yesterday clarified that its government did not add any two new AGOA benchmarks.

This was in response to a statement made in Parliament on Monday by the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Winnie Magagula, that two new benchmarks were received by agreement last week Friday.
The minister told the House of Assembly that she was yet to brief Cabinet on this development and then the nation.

Unionisation

However, of the two benchmarks, she eventually revealed one, which was a call for the unionisation of the Correctional Services staff.
She also mentioned that the issues raised were highly political and had little to do with AGOA.
That being said, the US Embassy chose not to be silent on this but set the record straight.

Ruth Newman, the embassy’s Public Affairs Officer, made it categorically clear that: “No new benchmarks have been added, nor does the United States Government intend to add any. We have no information on what communication the minister is referring to,” Newmann further said.
She explained that the eligibility criteria for the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) included respect for the rule of law, poverty reduction, combating corruption, respect for workers’ and human rights, child labour protections and market openness.

Furthermore, the AGOA legislation required an annual review of all eligible sub-Saharan African countries to determine whether or not they had established or were making ‘continuous progress towards establishing’policies which supported these criteria.

To avoid any ambiguity as to what the US Government considered progress on workers rights issues, Newman mentioned that the kingdom’s government was provided with five specific benchmarks they needed to have met by May 15, 2014 in order to demonstrate measurable progress, as required by the AGOA legislation.  

 
Evaluated

“These benchmarks had been provided to the Swazi Government every year since 2010. 
“Since Swaziland is no longer eligible to participate in AGOA, it will be evaluated, as with every other eligible sub-Saharan African country wishing to participate in the programme, based on all of the eligibility criteria, not a specific set of benchmarks,” stated the officer.

Comments regarding the response of the US Embassy could not be obtained from Minister Magagula as her mobile phone rang unanswered.
She was contacted between 4.30pm, 7pm and the last call was made at 9.30pm yesterday.

Magagula had noted to Members of Parliament (MP) that government had tried all it could to meet the benchmarks, but to no avail.
She said the removal of Swaziland from AGOA was like someone who had lent another person a jacket and decided to take it back, leaving the other cold.

Nevertheless, the notification of termination of the kingdom’s AGOA status was made two weeks ago after a waiting period of over a month.  The basis for termination stemmed from the unfulfilled workers rights related benchmarks. 

The loss of the AGOA status meant that locally-based companies exporting products to the US would no longer enjoy duty-free access to the American market. The textile industry, being the hardest hit, has regularly hinted the high prospects of retrenchments as a result thereof.
This industry alone employs just over 20 000 semi-skilled Swazis.

Some guests at the commemoration of the 238th Anniversary of the United States Independence last Thursday speculated that government officials’ no-show at the celebrations was in retaliation to the AGOA loss.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze said this was not the case.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: