The education department and the province will look into the nutrition programme that has seen thousands of pupils go hungry or receive rotten food. Photo: Supplied
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube has announced a full-scale investigation into the failure of the province’s school nutrition programme following an outcry about learners going hungry or receiving rotten food.
Two weeks ago, several schools in the province suspended classes after service providers failed to deliver adequate food to the schools. For some of the pupils, the feeding scheme meal is their only one for the day.
KwaZulu-Natal education MEC Mbali Frazer said problems were created because the department appointed a single supplier, Pacina Retail, which was still perfecting supply systems. Dube-Ncube said a full investigation was necessary.
“The investigation will cast its net to include probing the food distribution model and quality of the food supplied to 5 444 schools that are recipients of the feeding scheme programme across the province,” said the premier’s spokesperson, Bongi Gwala.
Despite Dube-Ncube’s earlier undertaking that pupils in the province were now receiving food after earlier hiccups, complaints that the food was either inadequate or of unacceptable quality persisted.
With pressure from unions and opposition parties mounting, Dube-Ncube announced over the weekend that her office would launch the investigation.
“Premier Dube-Ncube has since directed special adviser in the office of the premier, advocate Linda Zama, together with the research and monitoring team, Operation Sukuma Sakhe teams, community development workers and ward committee members to scour the province and conduct a comprehensive investigation and analysis of the distribution to every participating school in every ward in the province,” Gwala said.
Dube-Ncube said: “We need to understand the reasons for the glitches in the system so that necessary interventions are implemented with immediate effect to address the situation. There will be consequence management after the conclusion of all investigations where there is evidence of wrongdoing.”
In the past, the provincial education department had a service provider for each of its close to 6 000 schools, But the department decided to change the model this year and appoint a single service provider.
Dube-Ncube’s administration is also under pressure from Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, who has dispatched her own team to investigate the school nutrition programme supply problems.
The minister also wanted to know whether processes were followed during the appointment of the single service provider, said Motshekga’s spokesperson, Elijah Mhlanga.“Of course, as the basic education department, we would want all those questions answered. However, having said that, our immediate concern is that the pupils are not getting meals,” said Mhlanga. — The Witness