Home Affairs urged to procure protective equipment
This follows visits by members of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs to various Home Affairs offices across the country.
THE Department of Home Affairs has been directed to urgently procure personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline officials.
This follows visits by members of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs to various Home Affairs offices across the country.
It was reported that a number of offices, especially in the Limpopo, Western Cape and Mpumalanga provinces were closed, due to the shortage of PPEs and thermometers.
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PPE equipment is required to ensure that frontline officials are able to deliver services in a safe environment.
In addition, PPE forms part of the necessary and required tools used in adhering to the Department of Health and World Health Organization (WHO) protocols in fighting COVID-19.
Chairperson of the committee, Advocate Bongani Bongo emphasised the importance of procuring personal protective equipment using National Treasury Instruction No.05 of 2020/21, which sets out emergency procurement procedures in response to the National State of Disaster.
“The major preoccupation of the committee is to ensure that Home Affairs offices are open and that people get identity documents that are required to access the recently announced social assistance interventions by the state,” said Bongo on Thursday.
Despite the closure of some of the offices, the committee welcomed a report that the work of issuing death certificates, to enable families to bury their loved, ones was done.
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