State of the primary school nutrition programme - parliamentary statement
(17 March 2005)The UDM expresses its shock and condemnation of the reported state of
the primary school nutrition programme in the Eastern Cape.
Pupils in the Eastern Cape were regularly fed stale bread, biscuits infected with mites as well as margarine and jam that were beyond their expiry dates. This was contained in a 2003 report on the primary school nutrition programme, and later backed up by another report drafted in the beginning of this year.
It is shocking that this state of affairs was allowed developed, it is even more shocking that it has continued for at least one year after it was first reported. The programme in the Eastern Cape, and other provinces, has been characterised by erratic delivery.
The Eastern Cape was the focus of serious reports regarding malnutrition several years ago. However to add insult to injury, it appears that there have actually been people who have claimed from the programme for food distribution without actually delivering, in other words literally stealing food from the mouths of hungry children.
The programme was initially under the Department of Health, but is now handled by the Department of Education. The taxpayers and this Parliament are committing millions of Rands towards these programmes, but the other children still go hungry.
We call upon the Minister of Education to urgently address the matter because our children deserve better.
