SADC ACCREDITATION BODY TO AUDIT SWASA

MBABANE - The Eswatini Standards Authority’s dream of being internationally accredited could soon be a reality.

The local standards body is expecting auditors from the Southern African Development Community Accreditation Services (SADCAS) to come and assess them in the next two weeks. This was said by SWASA Executive Director Sihle Zwane last Thursday. Zwane was addressing Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo during the minister’s tour of SWASA offices. Khumalo also met the SWASA Board of Directors; commissioned the calibration laboratory in Matsapha and toured the metrology offices. He further visited the plot earmarked to build SWASA’s permanent offices.

Zwane told the minister that being accredited by SADCAS would ensure that local companies that have been certified by SWASA would also receive accreditation. To date, SWASA has certified 10 local companies. Minister Khumalo commended SWASA for this development, emphasising the importance of quality standards for local companies. He said quality standards were particularly important at this point since Eswatini was moving towards becoming an export-based economy. “For local companies and entrepreneurs to be able to export, they need to comply with certain quality standards. One would love to challenge the team to create a compliance environment and a standards based environment where every business, big or small, has to get accredited,” Khumalo said.

Accredit

He added that if SWASA was to be able to accredit all local businesses; this would also make the organisation self-sustaining and not dependent on government subvention. “Once we do this properly, it will become mandatory that what you sell to the public, in whatever sector, has to be given the stamp of approval from a standards point of view and what that means is that this organisation is going to be at the backbone of all of that,” Khumalo added. The minister then encouraged SWASA to develop designs for its own offices; saying this would ensure that they are able to effectively carry out their mandate.

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