FOREIGN NON-COMPLYING COMPANIES ROBBING US - LEO

MBABANE – “The festive season is among the busiest periods for our industry as contractors but foreign non-complying companies are taking those business opportunities away from us.”

According to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Association Brandon Leo, they were still fighting the foreign contractors alongside the Construction Industry Council (CIC). He said the challenge they were facing was that CIC had a soft strategy while the situation demanded a very aggressive approach.

Regulations

“CIC obviously needs to use regulations and the law, and the law states that they need to give the non-complying companies 30 days to comply and if they do not, that is only when they are able to take them to court where they can fine them E100 000,” said Leo. According to Leo, he acknowledged that CIC had no other option but he personally felt that the current method would take several years before they were able to kick the non-complying companies out of the country.
“Two weeks ago we had a meeting with CIC as an association to say that in as much as we appreciated that they were doing something about the matter, the speed was not adequate enough to solve the problem,” said the PRO.

He said that it was also bad because as they tried to stop one company in the country, other companies gained entry into the country. “We need to seal the hole at the border because what CIC is trying to do is similar to fixing a broken pipe without shutting the main water supply,” he said. He said they reached an agreement that other relevant stakeholders needed to be involved such as Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS), Competitions Commission (ESCCOM), Eswatini Envionmental Authority (EEA) and the companies affected through the representation of the association.  

“Some of these companies are supposed to be recovering the gasses but instead they let them out into the atmosphere because they do not bring all the necessary equipment; this is where the ERS gets involved,” he added. He said once all the necessary stakeholders had reached an agreement that is when the ministry of Home Affairs would be approached to stop the issuance of some of the permits for companies that did not comply.

Permits

“We are hoping that this new approach will also help revoke some of the permits that had been issued already for the companies that were working without complying,” added Leo. He said they felt that shutting the door at the border would work quicker than trying to chase the foreign non-complying companies after they had already made their way into the country. “Luckily we reached an agreement with CIC and they said they would work towards meeting with the relevant stakeholders following which we will have a meeting and make arrangements with the department of home affairs,” added the PRO.

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