MANZINI – The ongoing construction of the Bhunu Mall has brought to the fore critical questions surrounding statutory compliance.
At the centre of this unfolding narrative is the revelation that the project manager overseeing the mall’s construction is not an engineer, nor is the company or its director registered with the Construction Industry Council (CIC) as an engineering consultancy.
Tiyandza Masilela, an employee of Identity Clothing, was trapped after a wall collapse injuring employees and killing her.
It has been established that KAM Corporate was appointed as the project manager for the Bhunu Mall, working alongside J & E Construction, which serves as the main contractor.
However, scrutiny of the official registers and professional bodies reveals a complex hierarchy that appears to deviate from the established legal framework governing the construction industry in Eswatini.
KAM Corporate was founded and is managed by Reverend Alex Mngomezulu, a professional whose academic and professional background lies in accountancy and economics.
According to the registers of the Architects, Engineers, Surveyors and Allied Professionals (AESAP), Reverend Mngomezulu is registered, though not as a project manager or an engineer.
Instead, his name appears in the AESAP books specifically as a trainee or candidate and this registration is tied exclusively to the Bhunu Mall project. In professional terms, a trainee or candidate is equivalent to an intern, a status that inherently requires supervision by a fully registered and seasoned professional.
Statutory guidelines dictate that KAM Corporate or Reverend Mngomezulu in his individual capacity should have operated under such supervision.
However, investigations indicate that this did not occur. Instead, KAM Corporate assumed the mantle of project leader. Consequently, a structural inversion took place on the site as highly experienced professionals, including mechanical engineers, surveyors, electrical engineers and the civil and structural engineering firm E.D. Simelane and Associates, found themselves reporting to a project manager operating in a trainee capacity.
Lwazi Mthimkhulu, the Chief Executive Officer of AESAP, confirmed the particulars of Rev. Mngomezulu’s registration. “Alex Mngomezulu is registered as a trainee for the Bhunu Mall project, not project manager,” Mthimkhulu stated. He further noted that the matter has transitioned into an active investigation, offering a brief but stark legal assessment: “If his company or himself was a project manager, that was wrong and illegal.”
Investigations by the Times of Eswatini have further established that Rev. Mngomezulu’s entry into the AESAP records is predicated on his pursuit of a project management course. It is on this specific basis that his company was not certified by AESAP as eligible to be further vetted by CIC.
While it has been learnt that he has not undergone the compulsory testing administered by AESAP, it is said that this testing is part of the trainee candidacy process and does not confer the standing of a certified project manager.
When drawn for comment on these findings, Reverend Mngomezulu declined to engage directly with the specifics of his registration status. Instead, he referred all enquiries to Collen Dlamini, the Centre Manager for the Bhunu Mall Partnership. Reverend Mngomezulu did confirm his company’s appointment as project manager but offered no further details, suggesting that other professionals were involved in the project, though he refrained from naming them.
Dlamini acknowledged receipt of this newspaper’s questions yesterday evening but had not provided a response by the time of compiling this report. He later asked for a formal questionnaire, refraining from responding to the questions texted to him earlier on.
The Bhunu Mall issued a statement that it is cooperating with relevant municipal authorities, regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies as a formal investigation commences to determine the facts surrounding the collapse of the building.
It must be said that a civil or structural engineer is responsible for designing and verifying the safe ‘skeleton’ and site support of a building. Their expertise lies in calculating weight loads, wind forces and ground dynamics to ensure structures remain sound. Conversely, a project manager’s mandate is to oversee the building job from inception to completion, ensuring timelines are met, budgets are adhered to and local safety and quality regulations are strictly followed.
E.D. Simelane and Associates is an established and vastly experienced civil engineering firm, duly registered with both AESAP and the CIC. When asked yesterday whether his entity had been tasked with supervising Rev. Mngomezulu or KAM Corporate, E.D. Simelane stated that he was hearing from this newspaper for the first time that Mngomezulu was registered with AESAP merely as a candidate. “We all look up to the project leader, but let us wait for the investigation,” Simelane remarked.
Primarily, KAM Corporate is known as a business consultancy. Its stated mission is to offer business consulting services to help organisations optimise their strategies, operations and financial outcomes.
According to its corporate profile, the firm empowers businesses to achieve sustainable growth through a team of professionals driven by a shared goal of delivering measurable results.
The company’s defined role involves analysing business operations, identifying areas for improvement and providing strategic consulting to optimise performance. Reverend Mngomezulu’s listed qualifications include a master’s degree in economics, alongside analytical, financial and communication skills tailored to business advisory, which are credentials distinct from the statutory requirements of construction project management.
Commenting on the broader statutory requirements, industry professional Maqhawe Mnisi explained that a project manager is required to interface with both the CIC and AESAP.
Mnisi, the CIC CEO, emphasised that no company can lawfully act as a project leader or manager without being registered with the CIC. According to Mnisi, the CIC issues a project management certificate only after a consulting engineer’s qualifications have been vetted by AESAP and the candidate has sat and passed a prescribed examination.
“A project manager must sit an exam, and you must pass it,” Mnisi stated.
The regulatory framework governing these requirements appears robust, it must be said. Under the Construction Industry Council (CIC) Act No. 14 of 2013 of Eswatini, registration is a mandatory legal requirement for all contractors, consultancy practices, and industry players. This legislation is designed to ensure regulatory oversight, quality control and fair participation in tender processes.
Operating or awarding contracts without proper compliance constitutes an offence subject to severe penalties. Section 27 of the Act explicitly requires any person or firm providing construction works or maintenance services to register with the council prior to engaging in operations. Furthermore, the framework provides for categorisation and grading based on financial and technical capability, ensuring that only qualified entities handle specific thresholds of public and private works.
Working in tandem with the CIC is the Architects, Engineers, Surveyors and Allied Professionals (AESAP) Act of 2013, which mandates professional registration for consulting engineers and architects, thereby preventing unqualified practice and professional misrepresentation. The law stipulates that operating without valid renewal or registration leads to project suspensions, legal action and administrative penalties.
As of yesterday, the CIC register lists 35 civil or structural engineers, 21 quantity surveying consultants, 13 mechanical engineering consultants, 22 architecture consultants and 14 electrical engineers. KAM Corporate does not appear among these listed entities.
It has been learnt that the concerns raised by the Bhunu Mall project management structure are not entirely without precedent.
Across the African continent and beyond, the appointment of individuals lacking the requisite professional qualifications to manage major construction projects has previously drawn the sharp focus of regulatory authorities.
In South Africa, for instance, the 2013 collapse of the partially constructed Tongaat Mall in KwaZulu-Natal prompted intense scrutiny from the Engineering Council of South Africa. Subsequent investigations revealed significant lapses in the project management and structural oversight framework, with authorities highlighting that the delegation of critical engineering responsibilities had fallen to individuals whose professional registrations did not align with the scale and structural demands of the project.
Similarly, in Nigeria, the tragic 2016 collapse of a five-storey building within the Lekki Gardens Estate in Lagos resulted in a high-profile legal intervention. Investigations by the Lagos State Building Control Agency revealed that the site project manager tasked with overseeing the construction lacked the mandatory building engineering qualifications prescribed by Nigerian urban planning laws. The discovery led to criminal prosecutions as the State moved to enforce strict compliance with professional standards in the built environment.
Beyond the African continent, the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, United States, initiated a wave of litigation and regulatory examinations.
While the exact causes of the collapse remain a subject of complex structural debate, the Times of Eswatini learnt that subsequent legal filings heavily scrutinised the project management firm responsible for the building’s 40-year structural recertification process. Court documents highlighted allegations that the management personnel overseeing the critical recertification lacked the specialised structural engineering credentials required by local Florida statutes to adequately interpret and act upon severe structural degradation reports.
At the heart of Eswatini’s regulatory mechanism to prevent such oversights lies a mandatory consultancy practices registration form, a document that KAM Corporate would have been required to fill in had it applied for formal recognition.
The prescribed CIC application form requires the chief executive officer or managing director of an applicant firm to formally declare their authority to act on the company’s behalf. By executing the document, the director attests to having reviewed and fully understood the stringent information requested by the council. The application serves as a formal request to be considered for registration as a consultancy practice.
Crucially, the form contains a series of legally binding consents. The signatory must explicitly authorise the CIC and its authorised agents to conduct any enquiries or investigations necessary to verify the truthfulness of the submitted statements, documents and general information. This extends to seeking clarification from the applicant’s bankers and clients regarding both financial and technical aspects of the operation.
Furthermore, the letter of application functions as a blanket authorisation, permitting any individual or authorised representative from referenced institutions to provide information deemed necessary by the CIC.
This includes verifying the stated resources, prior experience and overall compliance of the applicant. The form concludes with a stark acknowledgment: The signatory understands that should these investigative exercises indicate any dishonesty, the application will be immediately disqualified, and the company will remain unregistered and uncategorised.
The procedural mandate attached to this form dictates that a Consultancy Practice must submit the application in the prescribed proforma alongside all necessary supporting documents.
It is then the statutory duty of the CIC to take action to verify the credentials and antecedents of the firm.
Only upon satisfactory completion of this vetting process will the CIC issue a ‘Registration Certificate’ in the specific work discipline applied for.
Leave a comment