Deputy Minister Bernice Swarts hands over certificates and licenses to technicians and trainers at the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Academy (ACRA) graduation ceremony in Johannesburg, 16 Mar

The Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Ms Bernice Swarts, will on Monday 16 March 2026 handover competency certificates and safe handling licenses to the trained Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Servicing Technicians and trainers/lecturers in a graduation ceremony at The Venue at the Houghton Hotel in Johannesburg.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has partnered with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Department of Employment and Labour (DEL), Department of Higher Education and Training and the RAC sector industry to develop the National Implementation Strategy for RAC service technicians in 2015 and the RAC Servicing Technician Training programme. The training was conducted in Johannesburg and Durban with participants from all 9 provinces.

A total of six hundred (600) servicing technicians, comprising one hundred and four (104) females and four hundred and ninety-six (496) male technicians, were trained and are now authorized refrigeration and air conditioning servicing technicians. The trainees and trainers/lecturers are from both public and private colleges and were also trained through this DFFE initiative.

The event also aims to raise awareness on establishing and strengthening mechanisms of formalising unregistered Refrigeration and Air-conditioning (RAC) servicing technicians in the Informal Sector; Promoting good quality workmanship; the training initiative to attract more informal/unregistered servicing technicians to come forward for the training; encouraging RAC informal technicians to thrive in the sector as individuals or small businesses; and strengthen collaboration/working relations between government, and industry vocational training colleges for the future and sustainability of this initiative.

Members of the media are invited to cover the event as follows:

Date: Monday, 16 March 2026
Venue: The Venue at The Houghton Hotel, in Houghton, Johannesburg 
Time: 14:00pm

To RSVP, please contact Michael Mokoena 082 867 5634 / mmokoena@dffe.gov.za or Banele Mabena 066 420 0144 / smabena@dffe.gov.za

For media enquiries, please contact: 

Zolile Nqayi 
Cell: 082 898 6483 
E-mail: znqayi@dffe.go.za

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