COMPLAINTS AGAINST INYATSI, MALOMA NOT NEW - FESBC

MBABANE – FESBC alleges that the complaints against Inyatsi Group Holdings are not new.

The President of the Federation of Eswatini Business Community (FESBC), Tum Du Pont, alleged that FESBC had been receiving complaints against Inyatsi and Maloma Colliery for a long time. He stated that the complaints escalated from 2018 until now. Du Pont was responding to allegations made by Inyatsi in its application to interdict businessman Mavela Sigwane and FESBC from causing to be made and/or causing to be published any further malicious and defamatory statements about the company. Maloma Colliery Limited is the second applicant. Inyatsi also wants the court to interdict Sigwane and FESBC from causing to be made or published slanderous, manifestly obscene and untruthful statements concerning the applicants and their directors.

Investigations

FESBC filed its answering papers yesterday at the High Court.  According to Du Pont, FESBC carried out its own investigations on Inyatsi. He submitted that the investigation dated back to when Sigwane was not an employee of the applicant. “In fact, the second respondent (FESBC) has been receiving complaints about the applicants from a long time ago and such complaints escalated during the period of 2018 to date, hence the second respondent felt it necessary to engage the applicant (Inyatsi) and other businesses not mentioned herein, in order to deal with the complaints of second respondents’ members,” Dup Pont said. The veracity of these allegations is still to be tested in court. Inyatsi is represented by Zweli Jele of Robinson Bertram and Mzwandile Dlamini of M.S. Legal appears for FESBC.

The veracity of these allegations is still to be tested in court.  According to Du Pont, the letters issued on July 12, 2023 and November 30, 2023, were sanctioned by FESBC, acting on instructions from its members. He pointed out that FESBC received several complaints from its members about suspected business malpractice by a number of companies, among which were Inyatsi and Maloma Colliery. He stated that the complaints were not only about Inyatsi. The president stated that on July 12, 2023, FESBC issued a letter to Inyatsi Construction (Pty) Ltd, which is a subsidiary of Inyatsi Group Holdings, seeking a meeting with the management team, to discuss a number of issues in what he described as a fact-finding mission.

Resistance

Those efforts, according to Du Pont, were allegedly met with resistance, such that the proposed meetings never materialised. He said on November 30, 2023, FESBC sought the intervention of the Eswatini Competition Commission (ESCC) in the matter as the rightful forum to deal with such matters. Du Pont stated that on December 4, 2023, Inyatsi allegedly issued a letter directed to him to demand that FESBC retracts its letter dated November 30, 2023. This letter, said Du Pont, was directed to the ESCC, seeking it to investigate the conduct of Inyatsi, as per Section 11 of the Competition Act, 2007.
The EsCC, according to the president, had not responded to the letter to state whether it was in or out of order.

Du Pont told the court that Inyatsi responded directly to FESBC and did not copy the correspondence to the ESCC, to which FESBC had directed its request for investigation. “In essence, such demand by the applicants that second respondent should retract the letter was interpreted by the second respondent as a threat as well as a way of interfering with the functions of the (Eswatini) Competition Commission in order to stop it from investigating the allegations made in the request for investigation,” submitted du Pont.

He also informed the court that Inyatsi seemed to rely on that as the former employer of Sigwane, the information used was sourced from him, yet such information was protected under the confidentiality clause in his employment contract.  “I wish to set the record straight that, second respondent has done its own investigations on the applicant and such investigations date far back before the first respondent was employed by the applicant.”

Seized

Further, du Pont submitted that the ESCC should have been joined in the matter, since it is seized with it as it was requested to carry out an investigation. As a result, du Pont argued that the High Court did not at present have authority to deal with the matter since it is pending before another competent forum. He also submitted that Inyatsi had a remedy available to it at the ESCC. He alleged that Inyatsi jumped to the High Court to stop FESBC from raising issues with the ESCC.

“The applicant should first present its case to the (Eswatini) Competition Commission and upon exhausting such structures, then it can approach this court, otherwise, the application is premature, if not meant to intimidate the competition commission and cause it to stop investigating the applicant.”
The president also argued that Inyatsi had failed to meet the requirements for urgency. Yesterday, the parties undertook not to publish statements while the matter is pending in court. The matter was yesterday postponed to Monday. It will be heard by Principal Judge Qinisile Mabuza.

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