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The EFF in Mpumalanga has slammed Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane for having her face emblazoned on sanitiser buckets that were donated to rural households.
Collen Sedibe, EFF provincial chairperson, accompanied Mtshweni-Tsipane on a Covid-19 coronavirus awareness campaign in Siyabuswa in Nkangala district on Wednesday where she also distributed 20l sanitisers to households.
Sedibe said his party fully supported the premier and her government’s efforts to help poor families prevent the spread of the pandemic but had an issue with a picture of her face plastered on the buckets – which are funded by taxpayers.
“The EFF is deeply saddened and disgusted by the inclusion of the premier’s face on the sanitiser buckets as this is a government programme funded by government money, not her own individual or private programme funded by her own money,” Sedibe said.
“The EFF therefore calls upon the provincial government and the premier to instruct the manufacturers of the buckets or the service providers to remove her face from the buckets of sanitisers to be distributed to the needy and deserving households in the province.”
Sedibe also took a swipe at the ANC and warned the governing party not to use the Covid-19 crisis for “cheap politicking” and for its own narrow selfish interests.
READ: EFF: Ndabeni-Abrahams must be treated must be treated the same way as other lawbreakers
However, Mtshweni-Tsipane’s spokesperson, Sibongile Mkani-Mpolweni, defended the use of the premier’s face on the buckets.
“The premier’s image was utilised because she is the supreme executive authority of the province. We wish to emphasise that the Covid-19 pandemic must never be used for political point-scoring,” Mkani-Mpolweni said.
She added that Mtshweni-Tsipane believed that it would take the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders to fight the spread of coronavirus.
The EFF, Sedibe said, would continuously monitor government programme to ensure value for money, openness, transparency and accountability for every cent spent during the pandemic.
Mpumalanga has recorded 21 positive cases of 1 845 coronavirus infections countrywide.
Service provider cheats municipality
Meanwhile, the city of Mbombela is investigating a service provider accused of providing poor quality sanitisers.
A service provider claimed that one of its competitors supplied sanitisers that were not approved by the SA Bureau of Standards.
“They put sunlight liquid in water and sold it to the municipality. It’s a job they do in their garages,” the aggrieved service provider said.
Joseph Ngala, the municipality’s spokesperson, said that the matter had been discussed by the council’s command team.
“On the quality issue, it was the municipality that raised this matter with one of the service providers. We indicated that payment can only be processed after we have verified and satisfied ourselves that indeed the product contains a minimum of alcohol as per the specification given,” Ngala said.
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