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CABINET BANS ISSUING OF LICENCES TO FOREIGNERS

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MBABANE – Government has enforced its toughest decision to date regarding the influx of illegal foreign nationals, especially those of Asian origin, posing as businesspeople.


There are at least seven short-term and two long-term recommendations that are now being implemented to make it harder for the foreign nationals to open businesses in the Kingdom of Eswatini.
The Times SUNDAY has seen a highly-confidential Cabinet paper that has the recommendations and discussions that were held at Hospital Hill regarding the issue of foreign nationals. 
Firstly, Cabinet has advised the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade to stop issuing trading licences to temporary residents.


Secondly, Cabinet has recommended that there should be a screening process to ascertain the ‘source of funding for foreign nationals applying for trading licences’.
Thirdly, the ministry has been urged to increase on-site inspections of these businesses throughout the country ‘in conjunction with the Royal Eswatini Police’.


A further recommendation is that ‘it should be a requirement for foreign-owned businesses to provide financial statements (12 months) when applying for renewal of trading licences’.
The ministry has also been advised to ‘enforce Trading Licence Regulations schedule B 4(2) (C) (asset value between E2 million and E5 million, with a staff complement of 11 to 50 people and/or has an annual turnover of up to E8 million)’.


The ministry has been advised to make this provision a minimum requirement for foreign nationals who intend to do business in Eswatini before they are allowed to set up.
The last short-term recommendation is that ‘consultations should take place on this issue to seek public submission to gauge public opinion concerning tackling the challenge’.

Increasing of fines after blacklisting


In the long-term, it has been recommended that the Trading Licences Order of 1975 should be amended to allow for the blacklisting of businesses found to be contravening the national laws and regulations.
The other long-term advice is that the Trading Licence Regulations should be amended ‘to increase fines after blacklisting’.


A senior government official informed this publication that Cabinet, leading up to the recommendations, summoned officials from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade to find out how the portfolio could contribute to stopping the influx of Asian nationals.


“Cabinet said they had seen that the ministry of Home Affairs was not helping the situation so they wanted the ministry of commerce to come and help. This was mainly because Home Affairs officials were saying they granted these foreigners the residence permits because the ministry of commerce had granted these people trading licences. So they were arguing that they had no choice but to issue the residence papers,” the official said.
He said what the Home Affairs officials, however, failed to explain was that they were the ones who facilitated these people’s entry into the country, but the commerce officials’ argument was that these people went through Home Affairs first before they applied for trading licences.


The official stated that the Cabinet recommendations followed the Parliament probe into the influx of Asian nationals into the country and government saw that there was an existing gap that needed to be filled because these foreigners were found with Eswatini documents in countries that they should not be in.

Terrorist ‘White widow’ found with Swazi passport
He made an example of the ‘white widow’ with terrorist links who was found to be in possession of an Eswatini passport.
“There are also ISIS members who have now been found to be in possession of Eswatini documents. If you look at the United States, it always prioritises issues of terrorism, so as a country if we continue to have our documents found in the hands of these people, we risk being declared as the weakest link,” the official warned.


He stated that it was this ‘weakest link’ risk that could result in the country losing on a number of benefits, especially in trade and foreign relations. “The bigger threat is that people carrying Eswatini passports would no longer be allowed to travel into or through the United States and that would be a serious situation,” added the official.


It has been ascertained that these recommendations are already being implemented through the Registrar of Companies office and Asian nationals, who are the main target, are feeling the pinch.
As a result, a number of the Asian nationals have communicated their difficulties to the lawyers hoping they would be assisted. The lawyers, in turn, reportedly approached the Law Society of Eswatini to find out what the problems were at the Registrar of Companies offices that was making it impossible for their clients to register their businesses.


Law Society Secretary General Bongani Mdluli confirmed these reports and said they approached Msebe Malinga – the Registrar of Companies – for an explanation. “Malinga gave us satisfactory responses which we conveyed to our members. But if there are people who still have problems, they can approach us individually,” Mdluli said.
On the other hand, Malinga said the issue of the recommendations was not only for his office or specific departments but the entire Ministry mhence the Minister Jabulani Mabuza, and Principal Secretary Siboniso Nkambule were the ones better placed to speak on them. He, however, confirmed that they were implementing the recommendations.

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