Back to school: R1-million worth of school-issued face masks sent back to suppliers
Pupils at public schools will be receiving government-issued masks every three months, says the director-general of the Basic Education Department, but things have not got off to the best start.
Mathanzima Mweli has said that the provincial education departments have precautionary measures in place to ensure that schools do not run out of face masks now that children will be returning to schools.
READ: 2020 is the year of the nurse
Although three provinces have had to return more than 80,000 face masks to suppliers after it was found that they were of poor quality or completely defective.
In KwaZulu-Natal, it was found that 26,000 masks, valued at R62,000, were not up to standards and had to be returned to suppliers.
READ: I battled the jaws of death and survived through dance
This was also the case in Limpopo, with 54,557 masks, worth R876,069, needing to be returned, while Mpumalanga had 2,244 masks sent back.
Luckily, these issues are quickly being taken care of and families should be assured that this won't affect the children going back to school.
Main image courtesy of Pexels