News24 Malibongwe Dayimani
- Eastern Cape Education MEC Fundile Gade has ordered legal action against a supplier of sanitizers.
- Tests on samples of a sanitizer used at Makaula Secondary School, where 204 tested positive for Covid-19, contained low levels of alcohol.
- Nine other schools in the virus-hit Alfred Nzo District used sanitizers with alcohol levels between 4.1%-57.6%, lower than the required 70%.
Legal action has been ordered against a company that supplied sanitizers to Makaula Senior Secondary School – where 204 pupils and staff tested positive for Covid-19 – for “defrauding” the education department.
This is after a report in possession of the Eastern Cape Department of Health revealed that sanitizers used at the 1 000-bed boarding school, and nine other schools in the district, was sub-standard and contained very low volumes of alcohol.
To kill germs, levels of alcohol in a bottle of sanitizer must be at least 70%. The test, conducted by Rhodes University pharmaceutics professor Roderick Walker, has shown that samples of sanitizer supplied to Makaula only contained 57.6% alcohol, Timeslive reported.
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Walker had conducted tests on sanitizers supplied to 10 schools in the Alfred Nzo District, with results showing alcohol contents ranged from 4.1% to 57.6%.
The schools included Jolobe Junior Secondary School (4.1%); Nkulisa Primary School (31.9%); Mbodleni Senior Secondary (33.1%); and St George’s Senior Secondary (34.2%).
In the report about the results, Walker said the samples he tested were not in the original containers, therefore he could not tell whether they were tampered with at the schools.
‘Utterly shameful and unethical’
In a message addressed to education department’s superintendent general Themba Kojana, seen by News24, Education MEC Fundile Gade accused the supplier of defrauding the department.
