BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – Members of the public have been warned that there are certain people in the country who are scamming others using scholarship and labour compliance certificate.
Members of the public are made to pay for getting such services from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. The Ministry, through Principal Secretary Makhosini Mndawe, in response to this problem, has issued a warning to the members of the public to alert them about this unfortunate incident.
“It has since been brought to our attention that some stakeholders (clients of the Ministry) are required to pay for services that are provided by Government, through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security,” Mndawe said in the statement.
Mndawe said in particular, the victims were made to pay in order to get scholarships and labour compliance certificates. He said services provided by the Ministry were free of charge, except for services where a tariff fee had been approved by the Ministry and communicated via the right channels.
The PS said for scholarship, a student was expected to apply online and would be called for interviews by the Scholarship Selection Board. He said the scholarship would be awarded to that student, based on qualification for that scholarship.
Regarding the labour compliance certificate, an application for such was sent through email (labourcompliant@gmail.com) or hand-delivered to the nearest offices of the Ministry, which were situated in all the towns/cities of the country.
When applying for the labour compliance certificate, Mndawe said an employer should attach a valid trading licence, workmen’s compensation policy, and an ENPF Compliance Certificate or an exemption letter.
This, according to Mndawe, would be followed by a labour inspection by a qualified labour inspector at the company premises, a process that entailed interviewing management representatives and workers, on their own or through their labour unions, where applicable.
This process normally took a period of seven working days, subject to availability of resources. He said the Ministry entertained unforeseen special emergencies or urgencies for the award of labour compliance certificates without levying any charges for that.
