BRIGHTWELL NKAMBULE ERS COMMISSIONER GENERAL

EZULWINI – The Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS) has appointed its new Commissioner General (CG).

Brightwell Nkambule has officially taken over the reins at the ERS to replace the organiation’s first ever commissioner, Dumisani Masilela. Masilela left the organisation in January this year to join the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The ERS has been without a substantive commissioner general (CG) until yesterday when the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, confirmed that the Acting Commissioner, Nkambule would take over the role on a substantive basis.

Rijkenberg said the process of selecting the new CG had been rigorous. He thanked the Board of directors for working tirelessly to ensure that the candidate was eventually identified.
“The tax office is a very important wing of government’s operations. It is with this understanding that we must congratulate the Board for the excellent job done in undertaking all the processes necessary to reach this point. We also congratulate Nkambule on his appointment as the new Commissioner General,” he said.

Rijkenberg added that Nkambule’s appointment had been approved at all levels of government. He said this was a position that was critical to the country’s economic well-being, noting that it came with a lot of authority and responsibility. “The new CG has been in office for a couple of months now. We are hopeful that he shall take the ERS from one level to the next. This is an organisation that is well capacitated and we have no doubt that Nkambule will get all the support he needs,” he said. The minister also noted that while working on an acting basis, Nkambule had done a tremendous job in the position. He maintained that the aim of the ERS should be to move Eswatini from a point of tax payment reluctance to a point of voluntary tax payment.

Evaders

“Sometimes we need to be tough on tax evaders, but we also need to adopt a softer stance to allow for a service orientated approach towards the taxpayer,” he said. ERS Board Member Carol Muir, averred that the selection process had been arduous. She said the process to recruit a replacement for the departed CG began soon after the incumbent left his position in January. “It was a period of hard work for all concerned, and we are grateful that finally we settled on this name. We would like to thank the minister and all concerned for having worked with us to arrive at this point,” she said.

The ‘new taxman in town’, as Nkambule was referred to at ERS’ corridors in Ezulwini yesterday, has gotten himself into really big shoes. This is because since establishment, the ERS has played a dynamic role in curtailing the country’s reliance on receipts from the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) in order to finance government’s fiscas. At the forefront of the establishment of then Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA), was the former commissioner, Masilela. To date, the organisation brings billions of Emalangeni to government’s coffers, annually. Nkambule’s immediate task is to improve on that. Meanwhile, the ERS was established in 2008 as a semi-autonomous oganisation attached to the Ministry of Finance.

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