Durban - The “mishandling” of the tender for the provision of meals to millions of pupils across KwaZulu-Natal has led to many of them going hungry and schools being forced to close early as they were struggling to concentrate on empty stomachs.
This is the view of a teacher union, that yesterday said since schools reopened after the Easter break, pupils had been going hungry.
The crisis, unions claimed, stemmed from the decision of the KZN Department of Education to change suppliers for the school nutrition programme, and to appoint a single service provider for all of KZN, instead of having individual suppliers for different schools.
Late last night, the KZN Education Department said in a statement that an investigation into the matter had found that there were logistical challenges encountered by the appointed service provider.
It said since then, food items had been delivered to 90% of the province’s 5444 schools, “although there were reports of shortages in some of the schools like in Ugu District and these are currently being attended”.
Earlier yesterday, Doctor Ngema, general secretary for the National Teachers Union (Natu), said they have been struggling to get answers from the department on what he labelled as a catastrophe. He said the union had now resolved to contact the national Department of Basic Education.
“We want the national department to intervene, or they should take over the school nutrition programme.”
He said in the Amajuba District, the union was informed that some of the principals were camping out at the district office to get answers, while in uMzinyathi a few principals had to go to the supply points to collect the food.
“The department took a decision to change suppliers. There were individuals who were supplying each school, but they decided to appoint one supplier for the whole province. That is more than 5 000 schools and more than 2 million pupils, we do not know why they went this route because the old system was working fine,” said Ngema.
South African Democratic Teachers’ Union provincial secretary Nomarashiya Caluza lambasted the department, insisting that no explanation from the department would justify the matter.
“It is an injustice because the national department allocates grant monies to all provinces for the school nutrition programme. The day the department decided to involve middle men in the feeding of pupils, was the day the whole initiative got compromised,” she said.
“We believe that if schools can be given their allocations to cater for their learners we can avoid the infighting involved in the tender system. We as Sadtu engaged the MEC and HoD who both promised that they were working on interventions,” she said.
Political parties have also demanded answers.
The DA said the KZN Education MEC informed the party that the vast majority of schools in the province would have food by the end of yesterday.
DA KZN spokesperson on education, Dr Imran Keeka, said the assurance came with the possible exception of Ugu, where the school feeding programme is expected to be restored by Monday. He said there is also an exception for Ulundi and its surrounds, where alleged political interference was delaying the service.
The IFP’s Thembeni Madlopha-Mthethwa said: “We call on KZN Premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, to break her silence and provide assurances that this crisis will be resolved swiftly. The premier should have demanded answers from the KZN MEC for Education about the food crisis. Her silence appears to communicate that she is not concerned about the welfare of learners, and that she is in support of the MEC,” she said.
Bongumusa Mnguni of the National Association of School Governing Bodies in KZN, said the department communicated to them that trucks would be going to various districts yesterday.
“As the organisation, we have raised our great concern with the department and they assured us that today food will be delivered to schools. This lack of food is bad because it affects teaching and learning and will increase the level of absenteeism,” Mnguni said.