Pupils at some Gauteng schools returned to school this week to find that no lunch was being served. 

This comes after a former service provider contested the provinces’ new National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) tender bid. The supplier’s contract lapsed in May 2024. Now, a total of 47 bidders are still waiting to hear who will be responsible for feeding at least 1 million pupils in Gauteng. The Pretoria High Court ruling on the matter is expected on 29 July 2024. 

Nomusa Cembi who is the national spokesperson for the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) says that the government has to do away with school lunch tenders because last year they received complaints from some of the schools in Kwa-Zulu Natal which also included a delay in procuring the tender.  

‘’School children cannot be robbed of their meals because of government red tape and their tender problems,’’ says Cembi.

The nutrition programme was established to ensure that school going children  from disadvantaged backgrounds have at least one nutritious meal while they are being taught caters for at least 9 million pupils nationally. 

No food at school

Health-e News spoke with teachers from Michael Seageng Primary School in Naledi, Soweto and Zithu Primary School in the Vaal confirmed to Health-e News that when pupils returned to school for the start of the third term on Tuesday, they did not receive any lunch because there was no food at the school. 

‘’The volunteers who cook for the pupils here at school arrived early in the morning to cook for the children only to find that there was not enough food to cater about 110 pupils,’’ says Mpho Legae* from Zithu. 

She further explains that when the schools were closing all the food they had received from the department of education was cooked and given to the children to avoid them getting spoiled and expecting fresh food to be developed before eschools reopened on 9 July 2024. 

Unfortunately, some pupils who are lucky received pap and tinned fish and the others were left hungry. 

At Michael Seageng pupils did not have any food. 

‘’The department did not notify us in time that the NSNP tender has not been finalised as yet. We are worried about our pupils. Majority of them come from homes where they either depend on the elderly or child support grants which is not enough,’’ says Phumzile Ntuli* from Michael Seageng.  

She adds that the school could not provide any meals for the pupils in this current cold weather. 

‘’How does one concentrate in class when they are feeling cold and hungry? We don’t even know what explanation to give to our pupils.’’ 

This nutrition programme does not only help in elevating hunger in school going children, however it has a positive impact in terms of enrolment of learners, attendance and retention in the education system and enhances concentration in class. 

Legae says that the school goes as far as identifying and assessing learners whose family situation is more dire and they are given leftover food to take home. 

‘’This is not just a feeding scheme in a school environment but it goes beyond our gates and into families,’’ she says. 

Food insecurity crisis

A 2023 survey by the Human Science Research Council found that 17.5% of the more than 34 500 households that participated in the study experienced severe food insecurity.  

Meaning that they often have to cut back on meal portions or the number of meals they eat. The survey also showed that these households often run out of food, go to bed hungry, or even go a whole day or night without eating. 

Speaking to Health-e News, Professor Thokozani Simelane who is the principal investigator of the National Food and Nutrition Survey at the Human Sciences Research Council says that most children who are fed through the school nutrition programme come from families that rely on social grants which are not enough to buy nutritious food. 

‘’The feeding scheme supplements access to food and ideally therefore should not be any setbacks in school pupils receiving their daily meals,’’ says Simelane. 

He adds that when there are delays from the government or service providers, alternative sources of food must be provided through short term contracts. “Children should not be made to suffer due to poor planning.” 

Simelane says additional interventions such as household food production must be encouraged. 

‘’Platforms such as the South African Food Vulnerability Assessment Committee National Report whose membership consists of various departments such as Social Development, Agriculture, Health and others, should have solid programmes of intervention inorder to discuss and implement a joint plan that will sustain food flow inSouth African households,’’ he says.  

These additional interventions will reduce the exposure of children to hunger and enable them to thrive. 

Children let down

‘’The department of education must stop using learners to fight their wars. They must have been prepared to serve school lunches before schools reopened on 9 July 2024,’’ says  Matakanye Matakanya from the National Association of School Governing Bodies. 

He further adds that the school governing body association will be investigating the matter to ensure that school children are not affected by the delay. 

It is still unknown when these affected school learners will receive their meals. 

The Gauteng Department of Education acknowledged receiving our media inquiry but did not respond.  – Health-e News 

Not their real names