Problem-stricken feeding scheme

One million underprivileged school children in the Eastern Cape, who should be benefiting from the School Nutrition Programme, are now at the mercy of the provincial department of education, which has temp­orarily suspended the programme amid allegations of R100-million in irregular tender awards.

‘Premier Nosimo Balindlela has cancelled all supplier contracts and Mr Makhangeli Matomela [the provincial minister of education] has resigned. These are decisions that we as the Public Service Account­ability Monitor welcome, but the premier still needs to inform us as to what will happen in the future,” says education researcher Lwandile Funba from the accountability monitor.

‘The decision [to cancel the contracts] was reached after the forensic report highlighted that tender awards were fraught with irregularities amounting to R100-million alone,” says Loyiso Pulumani, spokesperson for the department of education. Six senior department officials are currently on suspension with pay until the outcome of their disciplinary hearing, scheduled for February 6. The former acting chief director of the School Nutrition Programme, Eldred Fray, and both deputy directors are among the six officials who have been suspended. The investigation also found that Fray had signed letters awarding tenders without the authority to do so.

Last year a frustrated Balindlela ordered a forensic investigation into the problem-stricken feeding scheme after a large number of schools in the province did not receive their full supplies. The programme had previously undergone a drastic change, switching from centralised larger suppliers to smaller suppliers scattered throughout the province, because, Matomela says, he wanted to encourage small businesses. However, many of the new suppliers were overwhelmed and unable to deliver.

The damning forensic report, released in December, uncovered widespread corruption and irregularities masterminded by high- ranking department officials. It details how a ‘syndicate” of officials fraudulently awarded tenders to companies that were either non-existent or had never tendered. Departmental officials were also ousted for having interests in the companies and cooperatives, and overpaying them. Matomela was not directly named in the report.

Matomela unexpectedly resigned on January 12, a week before schools re-opened. His resignation has been widely welcomed by opposition parties in the province, as it was common knowledge that the scheme was failing and was undermined by corruption. Max Mhlati, a member of the provincial legislature for the United Democratic Movement, maintains that Matomela should have been fired much earlier.

Matomela has admitted that mounting pressure from the failing programme made his decision clear and that he needed to take responsibility and resign. Balindlela has appointed finance portfolio committee chairperson Johnny Makgato to the post.

With the contracts cancelled, schools will not receive anything until the project management team, set up by Balindlela, completes the new tender adjudication. ‘Currently, a functionality study is [being] undertaken on all service providers who put in a bid to feed our children by the 1st of February,” says Masiza Mazizi, the premier’s spokesperson. The team comprises officials from the office of the premier, provincial treasury and education department. ‘It looks like over 700 people have tendered this year because the invitation welcomed everyone to apply,” adds Pulumani.

To give the new suppl­iers more time to prepare for this task, the menu has been reduced to jam sandwiches, juice and biscuits. ‘We are lucky because we still have a lot of samp from last year’s scheme … so the children are still eating, but it will be finished by the end of this month and that makes me worry because the department never begins things when they say they will,” says a hesitant Margaret Mvane, principal of Daniels Primary School in Port Elizabeth.