Cape Town - Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco) Minister Naledi Pandor has praised the Muslim Judicial Council Halaal Trust (MJCHT) after receiving its internationally recognised ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation via the South African National Accreditation Service (Sanas).
The occasion was celebrated during a gala dinner hosted by the MJCHT with key partners, clients and supporters at the FNB Building, Portside, on Monday.
ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) is a specialised standardisation system, with accreditation ensuring competence of an accreditation body in providing certification for the quality of products, processes and services.
There are around 171 members representing ISO in their countries, with one member per country.
Speaking at the event, keynote speaker Pandor said it was a watershed moment when the International Trade Centre in Geneva listed the MJCHT as the first and oldest halaal regulatory body in the world.
“As South Africans, we can be proud that it was our own Muslim religious leaders, our ulema, particularly here in the Western cape, who laid the foundation blocks for halaal assurance and halaal control which subsequently developed from an informal body to a formal structure for halaal certification which ultimately became the MJCHT. This was achieved by consulting professionals and academics who are specialists in this field. In this way, Muslims are assured of acceptable halaal food for themselves in South Africa …”
Pandor said the formal registration of the MJCHT endorses the body as a halaal certifying authority which is recognised locally, nationally and internationally.
She expressed appreciation to the MJC for its consistent solidarity with the people of Palestine.
This particular accreditation is a first for a halaal certification body in Africa.
MJCHT chief operating officer, Maulana Zakariyah Philander, said the trust had gone proudly South African as it had chosen Sanas as its auditor of choice.
“What is unique in our instance is that halaal certification wasn't regulated and accredited by third party organisations because we took it upon ourselves as a community to develop our own standards,” Philander said.
“So what is unique now is, we are speaking the language of the industry and we have opened ourselves up to standards whereby we can run our operations according to those standards. So we are the first halaal certification body now to go into this ISO 17065 certification body accreditation and that's really what makes this a milestone.”
Cape Argus