ActionSA outraged by KZN Education MEC shameless deceit about school nutrition crisis
21 April 2023
ActionSA is outraged by the deceitful information given by KwaZulu-Natal’s MEC for Education Mbali Frazer during her 2023/2024 Budget Speech, where she deceived the public by claiming that good progress has been made in the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) and learners are getting meals, in the matter where 5400 schools in KZN were left without meals upon returning to school from the Easter Holidays.
In the past few days ActionSA has been on the ground engaging with multiple schools to assess the severity of this problem, and it is clear that no progress has been made, and although some schools have been receiving some food, appallingly others have been receiving rotten food.
Thousands of children across the KZN depend on the meals they receive from the school’s nutrition programme to survive, and with the issue of schools being forced to feed rotten foods to school children, this is a cause for concern for us and this is exposing children to the possibilities of food poisoning, which can be fatal.
On Sunday 16 April 2023, we called upon the MEC to take the public into her confidence and be transparent about the issue but remained tight lipped. As a result, there has not been any development on how the Department of Education is planning to resolve the issue.
Subsequently, on Wednesday 19 April 2023, we wrote to the MEC requesting information regarding the NSNP matter and have requested that her office respond within 14 working days.
ActionSA across KZN will be monitoring the situation in cooperations with schools. Additionally, we will continue to supply some schools with food until the Department sorts out the problem.
So far, we have managed to support 3 schools within the eThekwini region, where we have donated food parcels, and we encourage members of the public who are able to assist to kindly get in touch with our office.
Issued by Zwakele Mncwango, ActionSA KZN Provincial Chairperson, 21 April 2023
