Durban – Pupils in most schools in KwaZulu-Natal are still not eating despite assurances by Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube that the situation has been normalised.
Speaking to the media after tabling her budget, the premier said the food supplies problems that engulfed more than 5 000 schools in the province have been resolved, with the exception of the ones under Ugu district on the South Coast where, she said, 90% of them had also begun eating.
A few schools that the Daily News spoke to in eThekwini said it was not true that the situation was back to normal because the problem was still there.
A principal in Umlazi, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was no food at her school and she was still releasing kids early to avoid them collapsing in classes because of hunger.
She said she had been informed by other principals that even the food items delivered by suppliers on Tuesday, during the premier’s address, were short, so the schools decided not to cook because it would not be enough for all the schoolchildren.
“We heard the premier saying thing have returned to normal but we did not know what she was talking about. I think she was deceived. There is no food in schools and those who were lucky to receive any got very little. And it was of very poor quality, so schools are still not cooking,” said the principal.
One of the service providers who contacted the paper, also on condition of anonymity, said because of its poor quality some of the schools were turning away food and refusing to sign for it, fearing that they would be held responsible if there was an outbreak of diarrhoea.
Dube-Ncube vowed to get to the bottom of the problem, promising harsh action, even termination of contracts, for service providers who were responsible for the blunder.
Meanwhile, the ANC in the province also tendered an apology and said it had directed the premier and Education MEC Mbali Frazer to speedily resolve the matter. The party said the MEC would outline solutions in her budget speech on Thursday.
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