GEORGETOWN, GUYANA – Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has slammed recent comments made by Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton about the future of the sugar industry, calling his statements “disingenuous” and a brazen attempt to “rewrite history.”
In a scathing response issued on Wednesday, Mustapha said the public must not forget that it was Norton’s own coalition—the APNU+AFC—that shut down four major sugar estates during its time in office, displacing thousands of workers and plunging entire communities into economic hardship.
“Let me say, with absolute clarity and unwavering conviction, that his remarks are not only disingenuous—they represent a shameless attempt to insult the intelligence of the Guyanese people, especially the thousands of sugar workers who suffered under the very administration he now represents,” Mustapha said.
Between 2015 and 2020, the APNU+AFC government closed the Rose Hall, Skeldon, Wales, and Enmore estates, placing more than 7,500 sugar workers on the breadline. According to Mustapha, this was done in defiance of their own Commission of Inquiry, which had cautioned against estate closures due to the social and economic fallout that would follow.
“The coalition ignored the warnings. And thousands of Guyanese families paid the price,” Mustapha stated.He further reminded the public that the affected workers were denied their full severance and were forced to take legal action just to receive what was owed to them. It was only after the PPP/C returned to government in 2020, he said, that the full payments were made.
“The sugar workers were left to fend for themselves. It was the PPP/C that stood with them—in the courts and on the streets—fighting to make sure they got what was rightfully theirs,” he added.
The Minister also pointed to a study by the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO), which found increases in suicide, crime, and alcohol abuse in sugar belt communities following the estate closures. These, he said, were “grim markers of the deep social trauma” inflicted by the former administration’s policies.
Now, as Norton talks about reviving GUYSUCO and preventing further closures, Mustapha says it’s a hard sell to workers and communities who remember what happened not long ago.
“Mr. Norton now speaks of transforming GUYSUCO—promising no closures and floating vague dreams of modernization. These are nothing more than theatrical fabrications,” Mustapha said. “They closed the estates and called it right-sizing. Now they pretend to care.”
In contrast, the Minister pointed to the work currently being done by the PPP/C Government to restore the sugar industry. He noted the reopening of the Rose Hall estate, re-employment of workers, and major investments in mechanization and diversification.
“This is not theory or talk. It is action—real investments, real results,” he said.As the country moves closer to elections, Mustapha said Guyanese workers, especially in the sugar industry, will not be swayed by rhetoric.
“They remember who shut the estates and who reopened them. They remember who withheld severance and who delivered it. GUYSUCO doesn’t need empty promises. It needs leadership—and that leadership is already in place under President Irfaan Ali and the PPP/C.”
