Thousands of Gauteng pupils at no-fee schools found themselves without food and sent home as the province’s new R9bn nutrition programme got off to a chaotic start this week.
About 49 winning bidders were allocated schools and sent menus for 1.7-million pupils only last Saturday — just three days before the new term started.
Some of the returning suppliers are owed millions of rands and were unable to procure food from their suppliers because they are in debt. Others were unable to source supplies from bulk retailers in time.
While some principals borrowed food supplies from neighbouring schools, thousands of pupils enrolled at no fewer than 11 schools in Soweto and Bronkhorstspruit were sent home as deliveries had not been made.
However, Gauteng education spokesperson Steve Mabona downplayed the nutrition programme mayhem.
A week is a long time without food. Even going one day without food is hard for the school
— Michael Matabane, SGB chair Lo Itikile Primary School
“The start of this gigantic nutrition programme [did] experience minor challenges. However, [these] do not signify a mess, [and] all children were fed,” Mabona said.
He said deliveries had to begin on Tuesday, when schools reopened.
“Unfortunately, the deliveries could not be made when schools were closed, due to [the risk of] theft, and there was a slight delay in some districts. Schools had enough stock to use, and as such all children were fed,” he said.
Mabona said “deliveries were finalised this week”, but when the Sunday Times visited Soweto on Friday, it found some desperate schools had started borrowing food to feed their pupils.
The Sunday Times is aware of at least 10 schools that have yet to see any deliveries.
The department subsidises food at R4.13 and R4.33 a day for primary and secondary school pupils, respectively.
The weekly menu features protein options such as processed chicken livers, soya mince, sugar beans, milk and pilchards. Starch options include rice, samp and maize meal.
Noxolo Matoti, school governing body (SGB) chair at Mncube Secondary School in Mofolo, Soweto, said her school had experienced food-supply shortages from February. The institution went for two weeks without food.
Matoti said they had opted to borrow food from Daliwonga Secondary School in Dube.
“We borrowed two 50kg [bags] of maize meal, two 10kg [bags] of samp, 48 cans of tinned fish [sardines], a bag of onions and butternuts, because we ran out of everything for two weeks,” she said.
When they didn’t have food, they had to reduce teaching and learning to a half day, or pupils did not “come in at all”.
“Fortunately, our teachers and pupils agreed [not to reduce school time], but it was a painful situation knowing we were keeping learners there who expected to get breakfast at school but didn’t,” she said.
Matoti said there were pupils from desperate, child-headed households who relied entirely on the food served at school. She said the school would have to return the borrowed food as soon as their deliveries arrived, “as we don’t want to ruin relationships”.
This week sound relationships came to the rescue of pupils at Lo Itikile Primary School in Mapetla, where teachers dipped into their own pockets to ensure their charges were fed.
Michael Matabane, SGB chair at Lo Itikile, said their food-shortage problems started last month and came to the fore again this week.
At least one teacher used her own money to buy milk for pupils, while SGB members and other officials also chipped in for other supplies, he said. “I was fighting with SGB members and the principal this whole week. I was saying, ‘Let’s use the school’s money,’ because we had no alternative, as we’ve been [spending our own] money.”
A WhatsApp group of Soweto SGB chairs that includes Matabane and Matoti has become a platform for schools to manage challenges with the nutrition programme.
Lo Itikile received food deliveries on Thursday, after having relied on the donations from staff and SGB members to feed pupils. Matabane had already put out an SOS call on the WhatsApp group, which led to help from Sekwati Primary School in nearby Malapo.
“A week is a long time without food. Even going one day without food is hard for the school,” Matabane said.
The Sunday Times contacted two contractors — who together supply more than 10 schools — who were prepared to speak anonymously about their challenges.
A supplier of nine schools across the province — including schools in Soweto, Mamelodi and Bronkhorstspruit — said it had been impossible for them to be ready to deliver food by Tuesday.
“We get fish from Mossel Bay, because it makes no financial sense to buy it from Shoprite or Checkers. So it takes time to get supplies to Gauteng, but we were given the allocations and menus only on Saturday,” the supplier said.
The supplier, who is taking part in the programme for the second time, said he was also owed more than R4m. “I owe my suppliers about R3m, and they have stopped all supplies until I pay them,” he said.
A new contractor allocated schools in Tshwane, Soweto and the Vaal area said he could complete deliveries only on Wednesday. “If I had been allocated schools close to each other, it would have made things better. However, I have tried my best,” he said.
On unpaid school nutrition service providers, Mabona said: “The department is finalising outstanding payments from the previous cycle. All such payments will be processed in due course.”
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