Gauteng Premier David Makhura must hold MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi accountable for the R431 million spent on sanitising, deep cleaning and decontaminating schools, says DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education Khume Ramulifho.
According to Ramulifho, Lesufi’s department informed the Gauteng Provincial Legislature’s Education Portfolio Committee that it had spent R15 000 per school on ‘fogging’. Bidvest had also rendered this service to some of the schools without charge.
‘It is alleged that hundreds of companies who were awarded this tender to sanitise schools do not have any expertise and experience and are not part of the cleaning industry. That money for services rendered by these companies was paid in sundry payments raises questions as to whether this money was spent wisely,’ Ramulifho said.
He insisted that there should be an investigation and that should it be found that companies had submitted invoices without rendering services, the department must explain. ‘The investigation must ensure that the money should be paid back and those involved face the consequences of their actions,’ Ramulifho said.
[Picture: Mapepeza Newspaper, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77567581]