E Thabethe: South African National Accreditation System gala
dinner

4 March 2006

CEO of SANAS,
Honoured guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

We are here to commemorate the South African National Accreditation System’s
(SANAS) achievement in accrediting 1000 facilities over a period of 10 years.
This is an impressive milestone considering that the organisation is also
celebrating its 10th anniversary at this function.

When SANAS was inaugurated in 1996 it had a platform of approximately 135
accredited laboratories. Ten years later, it has accredited over 1 000
conformity assessment organisations and has concluded numerous international
agreements which means that the results generated by local accredited
organisations are accepted as technically equivalent in all countries that have
been peer evaluated by its international counterparts.

SANAS is the sole accreditation body recognised by the Department of Trade
and Industry (the dti) in South Africa as far as conformity assessment is
concerned. Accreditation is a valuable tool that facilitates trade by enabling
organisations to independently demonstrate their competence in an
internationally acceptable manner. This directly contributes to the dti
objective to increase market access opportunities for export of South African
goods.

The dti is currently in the process of developing an Accreditation Bill
aimed at strengthening government’s recognition of SANAS as the national
accreditation authority for calibration, conformity assessment and good
laboratory practices.

This forms part of the dti’s plan to modernise the South African technical
infrastructure, the system responsible for standardisation, metrology,
accreditation and quality assurance. The modernisation proposals as you may
know are documented in the dti’s website.

Once agreed by parliament, the new Act will entrench the position of the
accreditation system as a key component of the local solution for addressing
the ever evolving global rules for trade and investment.

This comes at a time when more government departments are identifying the
need for and using the philosophy of accreditation to identify sources of
competent conformity assessment service providers, e.g. the Departments of
Labour, Department of Health and the Department of Minerals and Energy. SANAS
also continues to work closely with the staff of South African Bureau Standards
(SABS) regulatory in addressing their conformity assessment requirements
through SANAS accreditation in line with the technical regulatory framework
philosophy of the dti.

SANAS accreditation of laboratories is recognised in more than 35 different
countries that are members of the International Laboratory Accreditation
Cooperation (ILAC). As international structures that are linked into the global
trade system the role of these international organisations have become
increasingly relevant as we see an acceleration of the rate of globalisation,
which has seen national economies becoming increasingly integrated since the
1990’s. Key drivers for this integration include the expansion of international
trade, greater global investment flows and the emergence of advanced global
telecommunications and transportation networks. Accreditation is a vital
element of any globalising economy that wants to participate in global
networks.

Recognition of the role of accreditation in the technical infrastructure of
South Africa is critical to maintaining and expanding the export markets and
also in attracting new investment and industry to South Africa. This
recognition is achieved through maintaining our membership in both the
International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and the International
Accreditation Forum (IAF) mutual recognition agreements and ensuring that these
international bodies have input from accreditation bodies in the developing
world. Membership here ensures a level playing field and allows industries from
developing countries to compete with those from developed countries on an equal
basis.

Despite the fact that accreditation allows exporters the ability to carry
out their export conformity assessment locally prior to exportation, thus
facilitating trade, foreign technical regulations do pose a challenge to
developing countries in general in accessing foreign markets in particularly
the automotive, electrical and agro-processing sectors. In this regard the
international recognition that SANAS enjoys is a major contributory factor in
addressing market access challenges and will increase in importance with time.
Maintenance of this international recognition is a strategic objective of SANAS
and requires constant vigilance and review.

An associated but vital underpinning activity is to ensure appropriate
harmonisation of the local and regional regulatory environment. Most Southern
African Development Community (SADC) countries have some way to go in building
up effective government conformity assessment systems.

To this end and in support of regional integration in Africa, SANAS is
actively involved in building capacity in SADC through participation in
regional structures. A regional accreditation service organisation, known as
SADC Accreditation Service (SADCAS) was established and incorporated in
Botswana during December 2005. SADCAS complies with international best
practises.

I am pleased to notice that so many of the SANAS accredited facilities are
Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs), this directly supports the dti
objective of increasing the contribution of small enterprises to the
economy.

It is in this spirit that we wish SANAS all the best in its future
endeavours, and to assure SANAS that it enjoys the dti support.

Thank you

Issued by: Department of Trade and Industry
4 March 2006