‘Government opened the floodgates for corruption’ – SADTU

The South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) says national treasury’s decision to centralise the procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic has opened the floodgates for corruption.

It is alleged that amongst the 216 companies awarded the tenders, some belong to government officials, friends and relatives of senior politicians in government. Others apparently did not qualify for the contracts.

SADTU says it has led to an uncoordinated process where specifications of the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) were ignored leading to the supply of poor quality PPE’s imported from China.

Speaking after the union’s National Executive Committee meeting, SADTU Deputy Secretary General, Nkosana Dolopi says while government failed to pay teachers and public servants their salary increases this year, unscrupulous politicians were raking in billions of rands through PPE tender corruption…

“The National Executive Committee condemned on a strongest terms the whole question of corruption while we are facing this pandemic. We are disappointed as an organisation that some politicians when rendering their service abuse this time to steal money and also getting tenders in wrongful ways during these difficult times. We are calling on all law enforcement agencies to follow up on all these and make sure that those who are responsible are brought to book.”