OVER 20 000 JOBS AT RISK AFTER RES CORPORATION FIELDS BURNT

SITEKI – Over 20 000 jobs at the Royal Eswatini Sugar (RES) Corporation are at risks following the burning of four hectares of sugar cane fields on Tuesday night.

The four hectares are equivalent to 400 tonnes of sugar cane. The fire was started by unknown arsonists, who are currently wanted by the police. According to Sifiso Nyembe, RES Corporation Group Public Affairs Manager, the fire whose cause is still unknown, resulted in the damage to part of the cane fields on the Estate on Tuesday night. Nyembe said the company had not yet quantified the damage in monetary terms but noted that the damage of that magnitude would place more than 20 000 jobs at risk, which could ultimately affect the lives of more than 100 000 citizens.

Employment

This is because apart from the direct employment provided by the sugar company, there were many contractors and sub-contracted companies which benefitted from the value chain of sugar production. This starts from the growing of the cane to the final production. Nyembe said the company was quick to attend to the burning cane, hence only four hectares were destroyed. “We were quick to respond to the scene. A larger group, which also included children, will be impacted because RES Corporation’s social investment covers education, health and poverty alleviation. The business touches many people across the country,” he said.

Explaining further about the imminent job losses as a result of the arson attack, Nyembe explained that in the past, the company had 5 000 direct jobs. However, he explained that due to various other operations, this created the existence of other businesses, which then created more jobs totalling to 20 000. Asked what were the security measures the company had put in place to ensure that such incidents did not happen again, Nyembe stated that the corporation was not in a position to discuss them. “We are not in the position to discuss the security measures,” he briefly said.

Echoing his assertion, the company’s Managing Director (MD), Nick Jackson, also confirmed the damage caused by the fire started by unknown people. “Yes, I can confirm that there was some cane that was burnt last night (on Tuesday) and it was carry-over cane from last year. We should have harvested last year but we ran out of time. It is about four hectares, which is about 400 tonnes of cane that was burnt. But for now, I cannot be in a position to give quantification in monetary terms,” he said. Mhlume Inkhundla Indvuna Morris Dlamini confirmed having been informed about the incident. “I received a report of the incident that a sugar cane field was burnt last night around the Mhlume area. The company can assist with more details about the incident,” Dlamini said.

According to an impeccable source at the company, who was part of the team that promptly attended to the incident, the fire started after 7:30pm. Siteki Eswatini National Fire and Emergency Services personnel were called and they arrived around 8pm to put out the fire. Police officers from Tshaneni and Simunye, including those from Siteki, also attended to the incident. “It appears the people who did this damage were travelling in a vehicle because in a space of 10 minutes, no one was found there and it shows it was a planned mission,” said the source. Deputy Police Information and Communications Officer Inspector Nosipho Mnguni confirmed the incident.

“We have a report of burnt sugar cane fields, but we still don’t have the value of the damage. Police are still investigating the circumstances leading to this incident,” she said. Worth mentioning is that this is the second incident to take place as the company incurred E120 million losses from 1 000 hectares of burnt sugar cane fields during the June-July unrest.
The burnt sugar cane fields were situated between Tambankulu Estate and Vuvulane Town.

Deployed

Police officers from the Operational Support Services Unit (OSSU) were deployed along the sugar cane fields to keep guard and ensure that no one came close. Only company vehicles and employees were allowed access after security checks had been carried out. Moreover, the army was later deployed and conducted constant patrols along the sugar cane fields between Simunye and Tshaneni. Meanwhile, the country has been marred by a spate of arson attacks targeting schools, government structures and private property. On Monday, three high schools namely; Malindza, Mcozini and Nkiliji were petrol-bombed, resulting in loss of property such as books, furniture and wiring in some of the buildings.

Economist Sanele Sibiya said the current spate of arson attacks on property and structures would be a catalyst in scaring away potential investors, considering the volatile situation currently unfolding in the country. He likened the burning of the cane fields to arson attacks on forestry companies, where the forests were burnt yet they took a long time to grow and to be reach harvesting stage. Sibiya said even though sugar cane took a shorter time to grow and reach harvesting stage, the company had to have enough reserves and lines of credit to go back to planting and start growing, but that was determined by the availability of resources. The economist said in the short-medium term, the small jobs created during harvesting would be affected as the company would be compelled to cut down human resource to accommodate their expenditure. He also pointed out that tax complications would also be experienced as the country would be adversely affected in terms of tax collection.

Highlighted

Sibiya also highlighted that sugar was the country’s main export and contributed a large sum of money in cushioning the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). GDP is the total monetary or market value of all finished goods and services produced within the country’s borders. He added that the spate of arson attacks raised security concerns to investors who wanted to do business in the country. “In terms of the overall profits and tax complications, it will have negative effects because the country will face a shortage in terms of not collecting enough tax to subsidise service delivery. Sugar is one of the country’s main exports and that’s why we are continually calling for an all inclusive dialogue to bring things back to normalcy as Eswatini is no safe anymore,” he said. Sibiya further mentioned that there was a need for swift action to arrest the security concerns in the country as it had become risky and difficult to do business considering the current political situation in the kingdom.

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