11 Jun 2020

Mahalapye Sub-district Council has completed phase one of distributing food hampers under the COVID-19 food relief programme.

Briefing the ongoing sub-council meeting, chairperson, Mr Banthasetse Merementsi said of the 27 889 households that had been assessed, 22 794 were recommended to receive food hampers.

“Let’s note that phase two of this COVID-19 food relief programme is underway, and it will also follow the same process of assessment because household patterns have changed since the easing of movement,” he said.

On other issues, Mr Merementsi said the council had undertaken preventative measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 in schools by installing washing basins, maintaining toilets and constructing additional toilets were there was shortage. He also said geysers were being installed in schools to ensure pupils washed hands with warm water.

“This exercise has since been completed, except at Maape Primary School. We shall also see as part of the preventative measures, cleaning of school toilets at two-hour intervals.

This will be done at both primary and secondary schools through Ipelegeng beneficiaries who have already been engaged,” he added.

Meanwhile, in an interview, Mahalapye region chief education officer, Ms Maria Dikeme also confirmed that all 30 schools in Mahalapye West and Mahalapye East had complied with COVID-19 preventative measures.

The 30 schools, Ms Dikeme said, included primary and secondary schools. She said teachers heated water to ensure pupils washed hands with warm water.

She said the only challenge that schools would face when the other group of pupils resumed classes on June 16 was shortage of classrooms.

She noted that schools had resorted to shifting to ensure that no teaching took place outside the classroom.

“There will be both morning and afternoon classes which means we are going to engage more teachers to ensure there is no shortage of teachers in schools,” she said.

She said the other issue was that of Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) officers, saying they were sourcing them through the labour office to ensure all schools had them. Ends