Ubombo Sugar MD
shareholders to make substantial capital investments to sustain optimal business performance. Additionally, the issue of climate change characterised by unpredictable weather patterns, price regulations, protectionism, rising input costs (fertiliser and fuel) and of course anti-sugar consumption regulations. Whilst there are challenges, we also have opportunities in the industry. In our country, we have not leveraged the potential for by-products such as, bagasse and molasses usage. Ethanol to fuel is a huge opportunity, given the amount of fuel we import as a country. We do, however, have strong and committed leaders in our industry and the leadership at Eswatini Sugar Association (ESA), the entity tasked with regulating and selling our sugar is impressively competent and capable of steering the industry in the right direction.
Q: Recently, we saw that the European Parliament has called upon the EU to consider imposing sanctions on the Kingdom of Eswatini. If this was to materialise, how would
I then reported the matter to Motsa who also tried to advice them against the act but they continued,” said the report.
The PS and ministry were further told that one of the two employees was a repeat offender and had committed the same offence in a shipment delivered by another supplier.
DELIVERED UNITS
The supplier allegedly delivered a wrong pack size, yet the tender had requested them to deliver in packs of 100 but they delivered units in boxes, with each box carrying 900 units. The employee allegedly paid some staff members to use the scale to measure the weight and packs supplied in plastics.
He allegedly paid them to also pack water for injection. It was reported that some of the material used to pack the supplies such as sellotape belonged to CMS.
“I also found that some of the boxes were not packed as per the request of the supplier, according to an officer who was also involved, the task was also not completed as plastics for packaging were limited. The two employees involved form part of the receiving team, thus they were not supposed to temper with the specification
Ubombo Sugar be impacted since the EU is part of the country’s bigger markets for sugar?
R: I am not sure how this will play out.
Q: The sugar industry is considered to be one that is male dominated. Looking at the fact that among the values of Ubombo Sugar there is empowerment and inclusiveness; are there any strategies to have more women joining Ubombo Sugar and, by extension, the sugar industry, in all levels of the organogram?
R: We are intentional about creating opportunities for women in our company. Recently, we appointed the first woman Head of Human Resources in the company’s history. About a year ago, we only had one woman in the executive management team. By the end of July this year, our women representation at executive level (my direct reports) could potentially rise to circa 40 per cent. In the top 32 leaders across the business including executive management, we have 38 per cent women representation. Of course, we
of the product,” further reads the report.
It was noted that the company delivering the second consignment was not appearing as a manufacturer in the tender document, but as a second-tier supplier yet the stickers that were inserted by the CMS staff reflected that the supplier was a manufacturer.
The report further recommended that one of the employees be changed from the post of receiving supplies and be assigned a different task in another department. The report requested an investigation on the matter including other facilities.
TEMPERING WITH LABELS
It is worth mentioning, that tempering with labels in health supplies was a criminal offence and poses danger to patients in cases where the supplies are consumable medicine. Labels usually reflect where the medicine was made and in some instances carries the expiry dates of the medicines.
In 1950, a World Health Assembly resolution WHA3.11 was initiated introducing International non-proprietary Names (INN) to identify pharmaceutical substances or active pharmaceutical ingredients. Each INN is a unique name that is globally recognised and is public property. need to do more, a lot more but I can confidently say we are ahead of the curve in transforming the gender profile of the industry. Certainly, at Illovo Sugar Africa Group across all our seven operational countries, the leadership is totally committed to eliminating any form of discrimination, gender-based violence and economic exclusion targeted towards women. Notably, I am also seeing similar commitment across the industry including at ESA, the industry body.
Q: The country’s ‘sugar belt’ has for a long time been considered to be ‘a country within a country’, where the people living there have always appeared to live in their own silo, away from the rest of emaSwati and would only appear to mix with the rest through soccer, when they had teams in the Premier League of Eswatini. How has Ubombo Sugar addressed issues of integrating the community with the rest or broader population of Eswatini?
R: Hahaha ... this is not entirely true, our estate and to a large extent, the RES Estate and our large-scale growers have good amenities which also attract people from outside the sugar belt. There is also a growing trend of our employees establishing their family homes outside the immediate vicinity of the sugar operations, which allows for ease of integration with the broader population. Trust me Welcome, the action is in the Lubombo Region; some of the best schools in the country are located in Big Bend, we own a game reserve (Mhlosinga), we have a golf course, fishing clubs, dams and holiday resorts, you name it. But given the nature of our business which is essentially based on estate living far away from the main cities, there is a continuous effort to make the lifestyle attractive for our employees and to welcome emaSwati to experience the breath-taking sights of the great Lubombo Mountains. In this respect, plans to develop a shopping mall in partnership with developers, a huge modern truck stop and a new residential village are in advanced stages of planning.
Welcome: Thank you for your time Mr. Siyaya
Siyaya: It’s a pleasure