THE Parliamentary Committee on Primary and Secondary Education has said it conducted an inquiry into the distribution of sanitary wear reportedly purchased by government for rural schools. The committee, which had been petitioned by Sanitary Aid Zimbabwe and Deaf Zimbabwe Trust, tells us that during its investigations it discovered that more than a billion dollars worth of sanitary wear meant for rural schools cannot be accounted for.

It is also said that the Education ministry was this year allocated $1,23 billion by Treasury for the procurement and distribution of sanitary wear to rural school learners, meaning that the majority, if not all rural school girls, needing sanitary wear was supposed to get their year’s supply.

So during its visits to various rural schools across the country’s 10 provinces, the committee found out that “out of all the districts visited, only Zaka had received” its full allocation of sanitary wear, while the rest of the schools visited had received as little as “a single box of disposable sanitary wear with 10 packs (120 units of pads) since 2019” to nothing at all this year.

In all fairness, this is horrendously stupefying.

So what happened to all the sanitary wear that was purchased? Maybe the sanitary wear was not purchased in the first place. And if it was not bought, what happened to the money that was allocated to the ministry by Treasury? Has the country’s corruption levels degenerated to such low levels that people are now unashamedly fleeting away sanitary wear or money meant to buy sanitary wear for our poor girls attending rural schools?

Have some of us become so heartless that we are no longer ashamed to keep reading in the news that our daughters, sisters and granddaughters in rural areas are failing to attend school during menstruation simply because they cannot afford sanitary wear, and many are — in this day and age — improvising by using old blankets, toilet paper, rags, newspapers, mud and even cow dung as sanitary wear?

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Have some of us become so uncaring that we are very comfortable stealing the sanitary wear or the money meant to save our rural school girls the humiliation of failing to afford sanitary wear to the point of using some of the most unhygienic material?

If, truly, more than a billion dollars worth of sanitary wear vanished into thin air or the money meant to buy the sanitary wear somehow melted away soon after leaving Treasury coffers, then should heads not roll hard? If heads are not going to roll over this matter, then would we be wrong to loudly shout out that the country’s fight against corruption is just one huge waste of time.

We sincerely hope that this matter will not be swept under the carpet and be one of many others that have vanished into our past. And we also really pray that the proverbial sanctions excuse will not be proffered over the “missing” sanitary wear.