Education departments told to restart process of getting Covid-19 essentials

Attempts by five provincial education departments to get hold of Covid-19 essentials have been scuppered.

The National Treasury has told the departments to cancel orders from Imperial Holdings “due to non-performance” by the company.

The Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West education departments placed orders for the basic hygiene and sanitation packages with Imperial Holdings on April 20, while the Northern Cape education department placed an order on April 22.

All five provincial education departments have since been forced to restart the procurement process.

This emerged during a presentation made by basic education director-general, Mathanzima Mweli, to teacher unions at a virtual meeting on Monday.

It has been proposed that schools reopen on June 1 for grades 7  and 12 pupils.

Members of school management teams were meant to start work this week but this hasn't happened in most cases.

Esha Mansingh, investor relations and communications executive at Imperial Logistics, denied allegations of non-performance.

"We were appointed to distribute personal protective equipment and we delivered on all products (stock) that were available and on hand for distribution," said Mansingh.