Salt in schools recalled, destroyed
Onalenna Kelebeile | Friday November 30, 2018 13:58
Selebi-Phikwe Town Council has started testing all samples of food items before being consumed by students. Most of the food items passed the test, but salt showed high levels of iodine that was way above the acceptable limits.
District Officer -Development Neo Mogorosi said when delivering the urban development committee report to council this week all salt was collected from the concerned schools for destruction.
“The supplier, Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board, was informed and schools were advised to stop buying salt from the supplier.
“It was also agreed that in future the report must show the quantity required against the actual quantities orders for ease of comparison,” he said. He also said that food samples were collected from food establishments and schools for quality monitoring and salt samples failed, along with milk products, to meet the packing and labelling specifications.
A total of 2,024 kilogrammes and 1,292 litres of unwholesome foodstuffs were disposed.
He also added that Food Relief Services was able to supply all the required food commodities at all primary schools and students were able to get a balanced diet. Meanwhile, he said Selebi-Phikwe Technical College performed poorly with the overall pass rate per department standing at 47.5%. He attributed the poor performance to the postponement of the examinations from June 2018, the sudden closure of the college and the short notice that students were given to sit for their examinations in August.
Mogorosi said the college is also faced with a challenge because its accreditation has expired and that the commencement of the academic year has been delayed.
It is also anticipated that there would be a massive intake of 1,174 candidates against the college capacity of 650. There is also underutilisation of lecturers. He, however, said that to address the situation accreditation documents have been submitted to Botswana Qualification Authority while the Department of Skills Development has been engaged to provide re-validated programmes and to provide a new curriculum.
On the health sector the District Officer said two specialists are expected this month at Selebi-Phikwe Government Hospital to improve efficiency. He said they are expecting a gynaecologist and surgeon that would reduce the waiting period, especially for the gynae clinic that currently has an eight months waiting period while the waiting period for patients booked at Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital is up to 2019.
He also indicated that the District Health Management Team (DHMT) has run out of funds to procure drugs from local private pharmacies since October this year. The Central Medical Store service level is currently low and stands at 34%. As a result most of the drugs are procured from private pharmacies and local pharmacies cannot meet the demand required hence DHMT has to procure from as far as Gaborone where there are already queues for service from other districts around the country. Funds that were received for drug procurement in April were P1 million and currently there is nothing since October.
He added that the laundry machine for the main hospital is still not working after a year and the hospital is awaiting the approved new laundry Quality Facilities Solutions. “Currently the hospital laundry is done in other facilities which is very costly. We are exploring possibilities of outsourcing the laundry services to private companies,” he said.
Mogorosi further expressed concern over the reluctance of the Youth Development Fund beneficiaries to service their loans, something that has compelled the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture Development to engage a consultant regarding the repayments.
He said the loan collection target for the second quarter was P80,000 but nothing was collected. The total arrears stands at P4 million, but only P166,000 has been collected.
“Few projects have been visited and beneficiaries were not found at the sites while others have relocated without informing the office,” he added. Thirty-one proposals were received for the 2018-2019 financial year and only 10 were approved after adjudication.