Failure to provide learners with food violates their rights, says Human Rights Commission

Read More

The failure to provide learners in the Eastern Cape with food is a potential violation of the learners’ right to basic nutrition, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has said.

Weighing in on the issue, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga to audit the national school nutrition programmes.

It emerged earlier this month that food was not delivered to more than 4 000 schools in the Eastern Cape. 

The school nutrition programme was already under the spotlight after a company in KwaZulu-Natal, Pacina Retail, which had been awarded the sole tender to supply about 5 400 schools in the province failed to do so. The tender was subsequently withdrawn.

“Considering the recent provincial hearing held by the SAHRC on this matter, we are deeply disappointed by reports of the situation and will be conducting monitoring to ascertain whether the allocation of funds to the affected schools has been effected by the relevant department in the Eastern Cape government,” the human rights commission said in a statement.

It said that in the event of non-compliance, it would investigate whether mitigating measures had been undertaken to address the crisis.

The Eastern Cape’s education department said payments to service providers were late because schools did not submit lists with the correct number of learners being catered for under the nutrition programme.

Malibongwe Mtima, the spokesperson for department, told the Mail & Guardian that payments have now been made “and everything is in control”.

The DA’s representative for basic education, Baxolile Nodada, said it was becoming increasingly clear that some provinces were not capable of effectively managing the “crucial” school nutrition programme.

“We need to know which other programmes are in jeopardy as a matter of urgency if we are to prevent learners in other provinces from going hungry,” he said.

“On the heels of the chaos in KZN, which left 30 000 learners at 5400 schools without meals, 4 982 schools in the Eastern Cape haven’t provided their learners with meals due to administrative failures to pay schools and service providers.

“This incompetence from the ANC government must not go unchecked. It is clear that cadre enrichment weighs far more than the well-being of children. Apologies when the government inevitably fails the country’s poorest and most vulnerable members of society are no longer enough or acceptable. Heads must roll — that is the only just course of action,” Nodada added.

The Western Cape education department told the M&G that strictly monitoring contractual obligations with its service providers has made its own school nutrition programme a success, with daily feeding statistics being provided each school day.

“The Western Cape education department’s school nutrition programme is currently operating successfully with approximately 517 000 learners being fed a nutritious breakfast and lunch meal every school day,” communications director Bronagh Hammond said.

She said R557 million had been budgeted for the scheme for the 2023-24 financial year, with 1 038 schools, representing 67% of the public schools benefitting from the initiative.