Department making sanitiser for EC farm workers

The provincial department of rural development & agrarian reform is producing sanitisers for the benefit of farm workers and agricultural value chain facilities within the province.

On Thursday, MEC Nomakhozana Meth visited the Dohne Rese department’s research programme facility at Dohne in Stutterheim, where sanitisers are being produced.

Speaking about the initiative, which is in partnership with Rhodes University, Meth said the department was doing its best to fight Covid-19.

She said the sanitisers were in line with World Health Organisation standards.

Sanitisers are in high demand among people working on farms where food production is continuing as an essential service.

The Tsolo Agriculture and Rural Development Institute is also producing face masks.

The sanitisers will be distributed to farmers and farm workers and to all districts in the province.

“I will go around the province to see if the regulations are followed, and where there is a need, we will give support to farm workers to protect themselves.

“We are excited to be able to use Dohne to produce this and will save resources and make sanitiser shortage a thing of the past,” Meth said.

“Even communities in this Level 4 [lockdown] will be able to benefit but we will devise a plan on how to go about doing that.

“Our emphasis is on the safety of workers on farms.

“We are only buying the raw material and savings will be immense compared to buying.”

Meth said it was not only government’s responsibility to fight the virus, but it also lay with the workers themselves.

“They have the responsibility as well as it’s their lives.

“I can’t say we are doing enough, but we are doing our best.

“The fact is when there was an outbreak in Majola [village] we took a decision to help. It means there are increased measures to ensure safety.

“We want to say to farmers that food is needed in the world. We must not be deterred by this but observe the regulations at all times.”

Dr Tembakazi Silwana, director of plant and crop production research at the facility, said there were seven scientific technicians dedicated to producing the much needed sanitisers.

Their challenges included not being able to access material  to produce the sanitisers due to the limitations of the lockdown, she said.

The team, which has produced 1,000l of sanitisers, started production on Tuesday.

“With the Level 4 coming tomorrow [Friday], we are confident that we will produce more,” Silwana said.

Prof Rod Walker, of Rhodes University’s pharmacy faculty, said they were trying to scale up to produce 900l a day.

“It’s a relatively easy-to-make product but it has to be made in a controlled environment,” he said.

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