Attempts by five provincial education departments to get hold of Covid-19 essentials has been scuppered.

The National Treasury has told the departments to cancel orders from Imperial Holdings “due to non-performance” by the company.

The Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West education departments placed orders for the basic hygiene and sanitation packages with Imperial Holdings on April 20, while the Northern Cape education department placed an order on April 22.

All five provincial education departments have since been forced to restart the procurement process.

This emerged during a presentation made by basic education director-general, Mathanzima Mweli, to teacher unions at a virtual meeting on Monday.

It has been proposed that schools reopen on June 1 for grade 12 and grade 7 pupils. Members of school management teams were meant to start this week but this hasn't happened in most cases.