Urgent call for KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape school nutrition programme challenges to be addressed
A child has a spoon of food to his mouth File Picture: A child enjoys a good meal at a primary school. Picture: Independent Newspapers Archives
Image: Independent Media Archives
The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education has welcomed the Department of Basic Education's (DBE) commitment to urgently address the school nutrition crisis affecting learners in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
Since the beginning of the second term, several schools in the two provinces have been facing disruptions with the programme, an issue that has drawn serious concern from MPs.
'In many cases, these are the only meals that learners receive. They do not have food at home. So, now we are taking away that meal; learners cannot learn on an empty stomach,' said committee chairperson Joy Maimela during a committee meeting this week.
The National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) is a key intervention aimed at ensuring learners receive at least one nutritious meal a day while at school. The committee was being briefed by the DBE on school infrastructure planning and delivery when the the nutrition programme was raised, following recent media reports.
Maimela said in a statement that she welcomed the commitment from Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube, who pledged to urgently engage her provincial counterparts. 'We are encouraged by this commitment. We will certainly monitor this space carefully,' she said.
Gwarube also clarified that the programme's funding is ringfenced and cannot legally be diverted to other expenses, prompting the committee to demand answers from provinces experiencing shortfalls.
In KZN, the provincial education department had stated in a previous announcement earlier this week that it had paid most suppliers in the NSNP and that others would be paid by Thursday, May 8. However the department has since said that payment would now be made on Friday, May 9.
The department said some payments had been unsuccessful due to technical difficulties linked to the implementation of a new financial system by the National Treasury and this was being dealt with.
Nkosinathi Ngcobo, head of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education, stated, 'We acknowledge the concerns raised by our valued service providers and wish to assure them that the department is doing everything possible to resolve the technical glitches affecting payment processes.
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Next Stay Close ✕ Nyaradzo Mutanha, monitoring and evaluation specialist at Breadline Africa, said while the organisation welcomes the department's stated commitment and acknowledges the progress achieved through the SAFE initiative, they believe that significant work remains, particularly in under-resourced and rural areas where many schools still face critical sanitation challenges. Mutanha said the organisation works directly with schools across the country to provide safe and dignified sanitation infrastructure. Since 2023, the NPO has replaced pit toilets at 29 schools with the support of private donors, corporates, and development partners. 'In one municipal district alone – uMgungundlovu in KwaZulu-Natal – we have received urgent requests for support from more than 110 schools, all of which still rely on unsafe and undignified pit toilets, and some lack any toilets at all,' she said. 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