Six companies, some of which only came into existence recently, pocketed at least R117m in 11 months between March 2020 and January 2021 for “fumigation services” and sanitising buildings for the Gauteng Infrastructure Development Department (GDID), ostensibly to prevent the spread of COVID-19. According to the GDID, this contributes to a total amount of R190m spent on acquiring personal protective equipment (PPE).
Daily Maverick reports that this is in stark contrast to both the Western Cape, which spent R36m in the 2020/21 financial year and mostly used an internal team, and KwaZulu-Natal, which spent just more than R5m and also used internal cleaning experts.
Also, Daily Maverick reports, this took place even though, since May last year, fumigation has not been recommended by the World Health Organisation for COVID-19 and has been rejected by South Africa’s own world-renowned scientists and infectious diseases specialists.
In June 2020, the COVID-19 Ministerial Advisory Committee also categorically advised against fogging. On its dashboard, which it says is up to date, the National Treasury records that sanitising buildings is the fifth-highest item of expenditure, with payments totalling R510m to date.
Daily Maverick reports it contacted five of the six companies that were given tenders by the GDID with questions about the best practices they adhere to for COVID-19-related cleaning, deep fumigation or fogging; industry accreditation that may apply; how their staff are trained and protected; their rates and details of the jobs completed for the GDID.
Only one, the KEO Group, replied. Daily Maverick reports that questions were also sent to the National Contract Cleaning Association (NCCA), which did not respond by deadline.
When asked to explain these costs, Bongiwe Gambu, spokesperson for the GDID, said: “Fumigation in this context refers to a decontamination method involving the spraying of vapour, mist or fog to kill undesirable living organisms on the surface or airborne including microbial. This is commonly referred to as fogging.” Gambu added that “the process of acquiring PPE … includes buying masks, gloves, sanitisers, dispensers and infrared thermal scanners, fogging or fumigation of our buildings (this includes ALL satellite buildings of the Department)”.
Gambu provided Daily Maverick with a list of government buildings for which the GDID has responsibility and the amount of space they occupy. It includes hospitals, which are also still serviced by other departments. The list is titled “Request for Quotation: Scope of Works and Services” and was supplied to bidders who were asked to “price all the regions”.
Daily Maverick reports that the list does not indicate what services were actually provided. Neither does Gambu indicate which buildings ultimately benefited from these services.
Gambu also provided a set of Environmental Health Guidelines produced by the national Health Department in March 2020, whose relevance is not clear, because the guidelines do not address “fogging” or sanitising buildings.
Daily Maverick reports that questions were sent to the national Public Works and Infrastructure Department, asking whether the provinces were issued with guidelines, but the questions were not answered.
Questions sent to Thabo Masebe, the spokesperson for Gauteng Premier David Makhura, also went unanswered.
[link url="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-03-13-what-the-fog-gauteng-govt-blows-r117m-on-unnecessary-and-potentially-dangerous-covid-19-fumigation/?"]Full Daily Maverick report (Open access)[/link]