Mandela’s R500-million school food scheme=20 is under review, reports Marion Edmunds
PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela’s primary school=20 feeding scheme, founded with great fanfare=20 in the first days of his government, is=20 under review and may face closure.
The Health Department has commissioned the=20 Cape Town-based non-governmental=20 organisation (NGO), the Child Health Unit,=20 to assess the effectiveness of the troubled=20 programme. The unit, which declined to=20 comment on its assignment this week, is due=20 to present its findings next month.
In the meantime, the Health Department says=20 that it wants to absorp the feeding scheme=20 into an integrated nutritional programme,=20 which will be part of a new strategy to=20 fight malnutrition in South Africa.
This statement comes amid widespread=20 speculation and fear among NGOs that the=20 scheme will be closed as the government=20 seeks more effective channels for social=20 spending.
Government strategists are said to feel=20 that the project’s budget of more than=20 R500-million a year could be more=20 effectively spent channelling money=20 directly to poor parents to feed their=20 children themselves.
In the 1995/96 financial year 5,6-million=20 children were reached by the scheme.=20 Currently only 4,7-million children are=20 getting their peanut butter sandwiches.=20
Mandela announced the scheme in his=20 inaugural speech in Parliament just after=20 the 1994 elections, as one of his personal=20 lead projects – a flagship of the=20 Reconstruction and Development Programme.=20 It reflected the special affection and=20 concern he has for children, particularly=20 those disadvantaged by poverty, and was=20 supposed to be an added incentive for them=20 to go to school.
But the scheme’s history has been=20 chequered, with allegations that=20 contractors, government officials and even=20 school teachers defrauded the project from=20 the start.
In the Eastern Cape, for example, greedy=20 government officials defrauded the scheme=20 last year of R5-million by creating “ghost”=20 schools and “ghost” food suppliers. There=20 have been frequent reports that the=20 contractors were skimping on the peanut=20 butter and drinks, and that bread was stale=20 when it arrived at schools, if it arrived=20 at all. Efforts to relaunch the feeding=20 scheme in the Eastern Cape have had only=20 limited success, notwithstanding an=20 injection of R30-million from the=20 government.=20
The government claimed this week that it=20 was reaching 4927 schools in the province=20 and delivering sandwiches to more than 1,5- million school children. The province’s=20 budget is R112-million.
The scheme has enjoyed successes in other=20 provinces. The Western Cape, which channels=20 98% of its allocation through the Peninsula=20 School Feeding Scheme, is feeding 300 000=20 children every school-day. The feeding=20 scheme’s chairperson, Bremner Jackson, said=20 this week that if the scheme were closed,=20 “It would very seriously effect the health=20 of the children . We have been able to see=20 the difference that it makes to the=20 children’s learning – to the absenteeism,=20 the exam pass rate, to the illness rate. To=20 give a child a couple of slices of bread=20 and a cup of soup is one the best=20 investments that a person could make.”
The KwaZulu-Natal government is also=20 claiming to have had success and wants to=20 bring peanut butter sandwiches to 3000=20 primary schools this year. This is more=20 than triple last year’s delivery to 800=20 schools. Northern Province claims to=20 deliver to 2500 schools daily.