04 Oct 2020

Botswana cleaning industry is in its nascent stage hence the need for companies to toil together in order to make the industry effective.

Botswana Cleaning Association (BCA) chairperson, Mr Jerry Ditlhong said this at the launch of their association in Gaborone on October 3.

Mr Ditlhong said the association was a fully registered society for all cleaning service providers in the country, further explaining that ordinary membership was strictly for 100 per cent citizen owned companies.

The formation of the association, he said was necessitated by common challenges faced by the industry and the key objective was to boldly professionalise cleaning in Botswana.

‘’We believe that it has been long overdue to adopt a different approach to perform cleaning which would result in cleaning for health.

The association couldn’t have come at a better time to ensure that standard operating procedures to effectively perform cleaning and professional disinfection in response to common microbes including COVID-19 are implemented,’’ he said.

Mr Ditlhong elucidated that the initiative came about following a series of meetings where common challenges faced by the cleaning industry were discussed.

Challenges cited had the effect of undermining the work quality, the relationship between the industry players and also affected the sustainability of the business, said Mr Ditlhong.

By forming the association, Mr Ditlhong said the industry was looking at undertaking duties in a more professional manner to ensure to ensure accountability.

He noted that COVID-19 had resulted in loses and most severe business closures which dictated their coming together to assist each other to surmount the COVID-19 challenges.

Increasing labour and supervisory costs was one of the main challenges because the scourge of underpricing resulted in poor performance by some of the companies, said Mr Ditlhong.

He therefore urged the companies to guard against underpricing because it would result in companies losing confidence in business.

Mr Ditlhong also encouraged them to intensify site supervision, make use of time sheet reporting, train workers and undertake site audits.

 He emphasised that a new cleaning approach would be introduced taking cognisance of the need for a healthy cleaned work space.

Launching the association, Business Botswana Policy Advocacy director, Mr Dichaba Molobe applauded BCA for the initiative as it would benefit citizen owned companies.

Mr Molobe encouraged the association to work hand in hand with Business Botswana, as its main mission was to defend and promote the interests of business community in Botswana hence all companies were eligible to join.

Business Botswana ensures that all conditions under which business is being done are conducive and it also defends the rights and the welfare of the members, he added.

He urged the association to also engage Business Botswana to help address their challenges. ends