SADCAS accredits Manzini Municipality lab
MANZINI – Talk about boosting investor confidence and having better access to world markets!
This is what the Municipal Council of Manzini has done for the country after its laboratory was accredited by the Southern African Development Community Accreditation Service (SADCAS), which means its testing services are internationally recognised. The accreditation certificate was handed over to the municipality yesterday by SADCAS Technical Manager Pinkie Malebe, during an event held at The George Hotel.
According to SADCAS, the accreditation certificate issued to the Municipal Council of Manzini is recognised in over 103 countries worldwide, thus removing the need for repetitive conformity assessment checks. It said effectively, this meant that through internationally recognised accreditation, SADC Member States serviced by SADCAS had better access to world markets - a truly global reach.
Congratulated
Minister of Housing and Urban Development Prince Simelane, who was the guest speaker during the event and was represented by the Principal Secretary (PS) in the ministry, Clifford Mamba, congratulated the municipality for this achievement.
He said this was the 11th laboratory in the country to be accredited and stated that as government, they took the such achievements seriously, because the raised the country’s flag in the global arena.
“Accreditation boosts investor confidence; that the Kingdom of Eswatini has the capacity to deliver laboratory services in accordance with global standards,” the minister said.
He added that the accreditation also raised the profile of Eswatini’s municipalities as sustainable urban centres of excellence, which was in line with Goal 11 of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Achievement
Furthermore, the minister said this achievement would open doors for the municipality to new customers, not only at national level but also globally. Therefore, he implored the business sector and individual citizens to start making use of the Manzini Municipal Laboratory and experience its quality service offering.
As a ministry, he said they encouraged the Municipal Council of Manzini
Minister of Housing and Urban Development Prince Simelane’s representative Clifford Mamba cutting the ribbon at the Municipal Council of Manzini’s laboratory. INSET: SADCAS Technical Director Pinkie Malebe (C) handing over the accreditation certificate to Manzini Mayor Quinton Els (L) and CEO Lungile Dlamini.
to continue working hard and deliver quality services to the city. He said they had noted with excitement the national and international quality awards that the municipality had been receiving in the
recent past.
“All eyes are now on you. You, therefore, need to work even harder in order to maintain the certification,” the minister added. On the other hand, SADCAS’s
Malebe said by May 31, 2022, they had accredited 209 facilities in the SADC region, 11 of which were from Eswatini; six testing laboratories, three medical laboratories, a calibration laboratory and a verification laboratory.
She said the Municipal Council of Manzini Laboratory was the 11th Conformity Assessment Body in Eswatini to be accredited by SADCAS, the 208th in the 14 SADC member States, which were serviced by organisation. She said the municipality had been accredited for Microbiological testing of drinking and raw water in accordance with the international standard ISO/IEC 17025:2017.
Accreditation
Through this accreditation, she said the municipality had been granted the unique accreditation number TEST- 1 0024, indicating that it was now an internationally recognised laboratory for the testing of total coliforms and E.coli in both drinking and raw water. She said the certificate of accreditation was issued on May 21, 2022 and was valid for five years, which meant it would expire on May 20, 2027.
This is the first accreditation for the municipality, but its strategic partners, such as Municipal Council of Mbabane, Eswatini Water Services Corporation and CONCO Limited, among others, have been accredited by SADCAS to ISO/IEC 17025. It is worth noting that the success of the Municipal Council of Manzini is anchored by its ISO 9001 certification, which is a basis of any quality management system.
Review
SADCAS received the application from the Municipal Council of Manzini in September 2022. A successful document review was conducted in January 2022 followed by an initial assessment which was conducted remotely on February 15-16, 2022. The assessment was conducted by two assessors, competent in microbiological water testing.
The initial assessment involved vertical assessments and witnessing of Municipal Council of Manzini personnel conducting tests. At least 16 findings were raised during the initial assessment, all of which were addressed and cleared within two months from date of initial assessment, after which the final decision to accredit was made by the SADCAS Accreditation Approvals Committee on May 21, 2022, based on the assessment team’s recommendation.