Eswatini Indigenous Products Factory (Swazi Secrets) is facing serious financial challenges which has seen employees not receiving their salaries in full over the past couple of months. Salaries for the 50 employees and payments to about 3 000 suppliers have been periodically delayed due to the financial woes faced by the company. According to the Managing Director of the company, Wandile Dlamini, the challenges have been caused by outstanding payments from international clients and they have been forced to dig into the reserves to keep the company afloat. The employees decried that the company since August 2022 has been offering to pay them an equivalent to their rent, transport and food expenses while waiting for financial recovery. A temporary layoff alternative was offered to the employees which they did not accept and opted to continue working with the hope that the situation will change for better. Dlamini further highlighted that they have been prioritizing the payment to suppliers because they need the ingredients they use to produce their marula products. He promised the employees of the company that there are exciting projects they are working on which will resuscitate the company and promised that they get their owed salaries including their increments which will be backdated to April 2022.
Sourced from: Times of Eswatini 28 November 2022
Nov 28 2022 5:04PM