Department backtracks on PPE funding for EC schools

In a sudden U-turn on Tuesday, the Eastern Cape education department revealed it will, after all, fund personal protective equipment procurement at the start of the academic year.

However the announcement was greeted with howls of outrage from some, as the beleaguered department has robbed Peter to pay Paul.

Earlier, during a briefing on Friday, education MEC Fundile Gade said schools would be expected to procure their own PPE for the first term.

In Tuesday's announcement the department said R24.1m would be used to provide schools with PPE in the  first quarter.

DispatchLIVE reported in its Weekend edition that Gade’s announcement — that schools were on their own in the battle against Covid-19 infections until the second term — was met with widespread fury.

On Tuesday the department said it had made a “deliberate decision” to decentralise PPE procurement for schools in the first term, and that rollout was at an advanced stage.

Spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said the plan was outlined in a memorandum that was sent to schools, unions and school governing body associations.

“To ensure that all schools are able to procure PPE, the department made a transfer of R24.1m  in January (for January to March) to schools, topping up the R2.4bn for Norms and Standards already transferred in 2020,” Mtima said.

Explaining how the department would source the money, Mtima said funds from the national School Nutrition Programme and HIV/Aids grants would be transferred to schools to augment whatever was available in the schools’ coffers.

“Procurement should be a top-up on what was available when schools closed in December. This is a once-off concession, which should be enough to cover the period between the opening of schools and the end of the first school term in March,” Mtima said.

But the DA’s education portfolio committee member in the Bhisho legislature, Yusuf Cassim, said R24.1m would not be enough. PPE for three months in 2020 had cost more than half a billion rand, he added.

“R24.1m is a drop in the ocean and does not indicate any provision for PPE purchases by schools. The department is not making provision for PPE and its announcement to this effect is disingenuous at best,” Cassim said.

Cassim said the school nutrition grant was already under strain, despite schools not providing meals during lockdown and only on a rotation basis at many schools thereafter.

“The HIV/ Aids grants are for HIV awareness and are minimal. Neither of these sources of funding has anything to do with PPE,” he said.

Loyiso Mbinda of the National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA in the Eastern Cape said: “If the department shall honour that promise [to provide PPE in the first term] Naptosa shall be highly pleased as its earlier decision for schools to buy PPE on their own was annoying, disturbing and impractical.”

On the availability of R24.1m to provide PPE, Mbinda said the department was “playing tricks”.  

Mbinda said the department’s decision to transfer funds from the nutrition programme and HIV/Aids grants to assist schools in procuring PPE would create confusion as those funds had nothing to do with PPE.  

Schools had received 45% of their second tranche allocation in December and the remaining 55% would assist in purchasing PPE for schools in the first term of 2021, he added. 

Thami Makuzeni of the Public Servants Association said the PSA had “noted” the department’s announcement it would supply PPE in the first term.

“The safety of our learners, educators and support staff is important. The department must do right in ensuring the safety of all involved in the education fraternity,” Makuzeni said.

“What we observed in 2020, when most schools were left to fend for themselves, should not be repeated.” 

Mtima said the department had provided all schools with a standard operating procedure guide on the PPE procurement process.

“Any deviation from the procedures will be sanctioned by the district director.”

DispatchLIVE