Africa-Press – Eswatini. The Federation of Eswatini Business Community (FESBC) has made damning allegations against the Inyatsi Group Holdings, calling on the Eswatini Competition Commission to probe it for antibusiness tendencies.
In a widely circulated letter, distributed to government entities, a Cabinet minister and the attorney general, among others, the FESBC has accused Inyatsi Group of state capture, claiming that government officers now feared the group and could not manage their compliance issues.
FESBC has stated in its complaint that it had been instructed by its strong membership of around 14 000 business and individual members to request the Competition Commission to urgently conduct an investigation into Inyatsi Group on its dominance and acquisition of various companies to the disadvantage of the local business community.
In an unprecedented complaint, the FESBC has alleged that there were many issues related to complaints touching on Inyatsi Group Holdings and its subsidiaries without anyone holding them to account.
FESBC President Henry ‘Tum’ du Pont, revealed in the letter to the commission that an attempt was made towards conducting a fact-finding mission on malpractices noted by local business.
Complaints
Among the number of complaints, FESBC is alleging that Inyatsi Holdings’ dominance was in almost all the sectors of the economy, namely meat industry (SMI acquisition), poultry (Umbuluzi Chicken), mining (Maloma Colliery), telecommunication (Eswatini Mobile), medical (Clinic Group), insurance (United Holdings, Lidwala Insurance), construction (Inyatsi, CA, Infracast), estate (Nkonyeni Estate), and other companies.
The sensational letter also makes serious allegations of ballooning of operational costs in the mining operation at Maloma where FESBC alleges that the cost of production is diverted to other sister companies, such as Maloma Colliery utilising Lidwala Insurance, The Clinic Group, Inyatsi Mining in Shaft 1, Inyatsi Construction in road maintenance, DATAM subcontracted to provide systems to Maloma Colliery.
“All these are provided under very closed bidding, which is internalised within the group and claim to be aligned to their vision of being an ‘African integrated business partner’, which is not really practical but anti-competitive to the industries they have participated in across the country,” reads part of the letter from FESBC.
FESBC also complained of alleged non-timely payment of local businesses that were sub-contracted within their business units and were not prosecutable in the current court of laws. They further alleged that there was non-compliance in terms of Construction Industry Council legislation in that Inyatsi Group Holdings bids for project categories far below their categories, ‘putting the local businesses out of business, due to unfair competition’.
Inyatsi Group Holdings Public Relations and Marketing Manager, Ncobile Dlamini, said the organisation was aware of the FESBC complaint.
She said, however, contents of the letter were not factual and the group would be taking action against FESBC in this regard.
“All transactions that have been conducted by the group are in the confines of the law. The transactions have also been taken through the Competition Commission,” Dlamini stated. FESBC’s complaint was copied to government entities and individuals, which include the Minerals Management Board Chairman (Prince Guduza), Construction Industry Council Chief Executive Officer (Maqhawe Mnisi), Eswatini Revenue Service Commissioner General (Brightwell Nkambule), Ministry of Commerce Industry and Trade Minister (Manqoba Khumalo), the attorney general’s office , Tibiyo TakaNgwane managing director (RES board chairman) and Inyatsi Holdings – managing director.
The Competition Commission Act of 2007
Form 2 of the Eswatini Competition Commission (Under Regulation 12(2)) allows for one to lodge complaints against monopolies, anti-competitive trade practices and concentration of economic power.
Section 42 of the Competition Commission Act, 2007 states that any person who contravenes or fails to comply with any provisions of this Act, or any directive or order lawfully given, or any requirement lawfully imposed under this Act for which no penalty is provided omits or refuses to furnish any information when required by the Commission to do so, or to produce any documents when required to do so by a notice sent by the Commission, or knowingly furnishes any false information to the Commission, commits an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding E250 000 or to imprisonment to a term not exceeding five years, or both.
“Where the offence is committed by a body corporate, every director and officer of the body corporate, or if the body of persons is a firm, every partner of that firm shall be guilty of that offence, provided that such director, officer, or partner shall be guilty of the offence if he/she proves on a balance of probability that such an offence was committed without his/her knowledge or consent, or that he/she exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of the offence,” part of the Act reads.
‘FESBC Board has agenda against Inyatsi Holdings’
Inyatsi Group Holdings has dismissed FESBC complaints as inaccurate.
Through their attorneys, S.V Mdladla and Associates, Inyatsi Group said the contents of the FESBC letter were incorrect and that the letter was perpetuated by malicious intent.
The attorneys stated that they had occasion to peruse through the said correspondence and have further taken instructions from their client with regards to its contents.
They said having taken instructions, it had become patently obvious and evident that the said correspondence contained information, which was not only incorrect but it was defamatory not only of their clients but other parties, who were mentioned in the said correspondence,
“At this stage, we will not deal ad seriatim with the contents of the letter however, we place it on record that as indicated hereinabove, the letter in its entirety, is not only defamatory, it is perpetuated by malicious intent.
Client is fortified in its belief by the composition of the board, which consists of individuals who clearly have an agenda against Inyatsi Holdings. The composition of the board compounds the defamation to the extent that it is not only civil, but it is criminal as well, therefore, there exists the element of crimen injuria,” stated the attorneys.
The board consists of Henry Tum du Pont (President), Thulie Dlamini (Vice), Mzwandile Dlamini (Legal), Fortunate S. Fyfe (member), Mavela Sigwane (member), Tania Fyfe (Chief Executive Officer).
Informed
The lawyers informed FESBC that Inyatsi Group Holdings was also a member of FESBC and as such, its (Inyatsi) sense of disquiet was raised to enormous extents by the defamatory issues raised in the letter.
“Given the proximity of client to the organisation our client’s instructions are at this stage to demand that there be a retraction of the contents of the letter by the organisation. The said retraction should be accompanied by an apology and such retraction and apology should be published in all media houses as well as social media,” reads the letter from Inyatsi lawyers.
Demands
“Our client denies the veracity of the contents of your correspondence and as such, demands that the said retraction and/or apology be attended to and published within three days from the date of this letter. Should you fail to retract the contents of the letter and make an appropriate apology within the stipulated days herein above, our strict instructions are to institute legal action against your organisation and further institute criminal proceedings against the individual members of the board whom client believes direct the proceedings of the board,” further stated the attorney.
Inyatsi Group further indicated that failure to do so would result in legal actions being instituted and that the non-denial of the contents thereof did not and should not be construed as a waiver on the part of their client.
FESBC Head of Transformation, Mavela Sigwane, acknowledged receipt of the letter from Inyatsi’s lawyers, however, stated that Inyatsi Group was writing to the wrong people as they (FESBC) had written to the Eswatini Competition Commission and copied the letter as a courtesy to inform Inyatsi Holdings of their intentions.
Sigwane said they would not budge from their demands.
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