The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Reporter
A Bulawayo school is locked in a Covid-19 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) scam after demanding that every parent fork out US$6 each for the purchase of sanitiser, a move the Government has deemed illegal.
Hillside Junior School, with a population of 1 500 pupils will raise US$9 000 which they say will be for the purchase of sanitiser for the pupils.
According to a price list from the National University of Science and Technology (Nust), which manufactures and sells the sanitisers in bulk, a 25 litre drum of sanitiser goes for $6 600 or US$100, meaning the school, if sincere, can purchase 90 drums.
Investigations by this publication revealed that the school head, Mr Zwelitsha Mhlanga tabled the budget to parents during a Schools Development Committee (SDC) meeting, which the SDC in-turn endorsed much to the chagrin of a majority of parents who did not attend the meeting.
The first phase of schools opening was done on 28 September for examination classes which was then followed by the second phase of Grade 6, Form 3 and 5 (examination classes for 2021) on 26 October with the rest of the classes going back to school on 9 November.
Under current Covid-19 guidelines, not all pupils can be accommodated at one go, with some pupils having lessons twice a week.
The school’s SDC chairperson, Mr Mkhuhlwa Nyathi confirmed the development, claiming that the figure had been endorsed by parents.
“Yes, we had such a meeting where parents agreed to pay US$6 for each student to purchase sanitiser, this is not a school decision but one that was actually agreed to by parents hence I see nothing wrong,” said Mr Nyathi.
Questioned on whether this money would not be prone to any abuse by school authorities, Mr Nyathi claimed they had put in place an audit systems to monitor the use of the money collected.
Contacted for comment, director of communications in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Mr Taungana Ndoro said it was illegal for school authorities to collect any money from parents for the purchase of PPE as the Government was already providing to every school.
“It is illegal for any school to collect money for the purchase of PPE, there is no provision in the Ministry for such a levy because how then is it monitored, it will obviously be prone to abuse by school authorities.
“Further, the Ministry is providing PPE to all the schools, in an instance where school authorities feel these are not adequate, they can request parents to supplement in the physical PPEs for their children not to demand money. If this is happening, we will surely be prosecuting the school heads because what they are doing is illegal,” said Mr Ndoro.
He called on parents that were faced with such a scenario to report the school officials to the Ministry’s district or provincial offices.
Efforts to get a comment from Mr Mhlanga were fruitless as his mobile phone was not reachable.
Before the re-opening of schools, Treasury released $350 million to prepare learning institutions for safe re-opening, inclusive of the purchasing of PPE with Unicef also coming on board to avail these to schools.
A number of schools in Bulawayo have reportedly been asking parents to buy PPE such as masks and sanitiser against the Government directive.
