An unnamed sanitiser supplier faces legal action in the Eastern Cape after allegedly ‘defrauding’ the provincial education department by providing sub-standard sanitiser, containing low volumes of alcohol, to local schools.
News24 reported that this followed a report based on tests by a Rhodes University pharmaceutics professor showing that samples of sanitiser supplied to Makaula Senior Secondary School – where 204 pupils and staff had tested positive for Covid-19 – contained only 57.6% alcohol, well below what is regarded as an effective minimum of 70%.
The news report said legal action had been ordered against the company that supplied the sanitiser.
It said an Eastern Cape Department of Health report had found that sanitisers used at the 1 000-bed Makaula boarding school, and nine other schools in the district, were sub-standard. Earlier in the week, TimesLive reported that Rhodes University pharmaceutics professor Roderick Walker had conducted tests on samples which showed insufficient levels of alcohol in the sanitiser, ranging from as low as 4.1% to 57.6%.
The report did note that Walker said the samples he tested were not in their original containers, and, therefore, he could not tell whether they had been tampered with.
News24 reported thatEducation MEC Fundile Gade, in a message to a senior official, said no payment should be made to the supplier, and that ‘legal papers’ be prepared ‘for him to answer before the courts of law about this criminality’.
Gade confirmed that the department was planning to launch legal action against the supplier, and was quoted as saying: ‘What this service provider has done is utterly shameful and unethical. Their carelessness and shoddy workmanship has effectively put the lives of children and teachers in danger.’
[Picture: Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash]