Schoolchildren in the Eastern Cape should not have to bear the brunt of the province’s poor budget planning, Democratic Alliance MP and education spokesperson Helen Zille said on Wednesday.
Zille appealed to Minister of Education Naledi Pandor to intervene to stop the province from implementing proposed severe budget cuts to the school feeding scheme.
”Minister Pandor needs to urgently send a team to the Eastern Cape to, firstly, ensure that a plan is made to keep the scheme going and, secondly, carry out an investigation into the way it is being managed,” she said.
A provincial spokespersons justification for the reduced spending — that the budget ”is not being cut … It’s according to our business plan” — is absurd, she said.
Over the past five years, there has been a 56% increase in the national department’s allocation to the provinces for spending on school meals.
”Last year alone, there was a 9% increase in the allocation.”
Therefore, any cuts being introduced by provinces can only be the result of serious mismanagement of the programme or the reallocation of ring-fenced funds to other purposes.
”Either of these reasons is cause for great concern,” she said.
The school feeding scheme is South Africa’s most critical aid in lifting people out of poverty.
Not only does it provide sustenance to children in their critical growing years, but it also provides them with a major incentive to go to school, and allows them to focus better on their lessons.
”Moreover, the Eastern Cape is one of South Africa’s poorest regions and therefore the children in that province depend more heavily on the scheme than children elsewhere in the country,” Zille said.
It was reported on Tuesday that more than a million children, mostly from poor homes, will be affected by cuts in the province’s school feeding scheme.
The Herald Online reported the programme will be scaled down from five to three days a week because the education department does not have money to run the scheme every day.
Authorities apparently saw the shortfall coming earlier in the year but made no contingency plans.
School snacks, including peanut-butter sandwiches and biscuits, are often the only proper meal many children receive, the Herald reported.
Pupils in all participating schools will now receive food on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, instead of all five school days.
The department has defended the move.
”It [the scheme] is not being cut,” said Eldred Fray, acting director of specialised education services. ”It’s according to our business plan. That’s how we planned at the beginning of the financial year.”
Fray said the feeding scheme was supposed to be operational for three days a week. But at the beginning of the year, the days were increased to five because of surplus funds.
”Now our plan says that, in the last quarter, the feeding scheme will be operating for three days. This will enable us to work within the budget,” he said. — Sapa