Business grievances should not stop PPE reaching schools

In the face of the threat presented by Covid-19, adequate provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) is essential not only for health workers but for private businesses and the state sector as well. Masks, sanitisers and other protective equipment are crucial for getting education going once more.

This is why large quantities of PPE have been sourced by the government, which has also commissioned companies to deliver the equipment across the country — no mean undertaking.

However, delivery to schools in some parts of the Eastern Cape has been impeded by local business owners who are disgruntled because they think they have been overlooked in favour of companies from outside the province. They have gone so far as to intercept trucks laden with PPE for schools and prevent them from delivering these life-saving goods.

The latest such incident occurred on Tuesday, when three trucks making deliveries in the OR Tambo district were stopped by members of the KSD business forum near the Shell Ultra City in Mthatha. Similar incidents were reported in Alfred Nzo, Mnquma, Nyandeni, Komani, Port St Johns, Amathole and Chris Hani. Confusingly, education MEC Fundile Gade has said at least four dozen local businesses — including some of those protesting — had in fact been appointed to deliver PPEs to schools.

Holdups such as these are nothing new in our province. Similar protest action has accompanied development  projects such as the construction of a toll road and upgrading of infrastructure in towns.

There cannot but be sympathy for the argument that local businesses should be prioritised where possible when it comes to government contracts, more so given the province’s economic challenges and high rate of unemployment, both of which have been aggravated by the lockdown.

On the other hand, if someone loses out on a tender, or fails to be hired to do a job, they cannot be allowed to take the law into their own hands and hold the state  hostage. And it goes without saying that companies who aspire to become service deliverers must be able to perform adequately and timeously, and not at exorbitant cost.

Business owners who feel aggrieved need to speak to the authorities, failing which they have the right of recourse to legal action. Provincial government and local authorities should do their utmost to promote local SMMEs. But taking the law into one’s own hands and using bullying tactics to block business rivals should never be tolerated. This is even more the case when it involves hijacking the delivery of lifesaving equipment to children and their teachers.