Delays in school feeding scheme

Wednesday, 20 November 2013 - The South African Communist Party in the Moses Mabhida Province (KZN) has learnt with a sense of shock and disbelief about the anger expressed by some companies who are complaining about the delay in the awarding of school feeding scheme tenders.

"It was strange that it is the companies that are angry and not the children who are the beneficiaries of the school feeding scheme. This (anger) has confirmed our suspicion that the school feeding scheme has been turned into a profit maximization scheme by greedy tenderpreneurs making it a breeding ground of corruption", said SACP Provincial Secretary comrade Themba Mthembu.

The SACP is calling on the MEC for Education to institute an independent investigation which must probe allegations of rampant corruption within the department's school feeding scheme.

The department also has to prioritise local women and co-operatives for the school feeding scheme instead of private sector tenderisation.

"We want to applaud the MEC for demanding that tenders advertising the school feeding scheme should not only be in English but should be multilingual so that even semi-literate women and co-op members will be able to take part and not be discriminated on the basis of their fluency in English," said Mthembu.

Whilst the SACP would like to see a speedy resolution to this issue, the Party would also like to urge the MEC and the department to be cautious when dealing with this matter so that it becomes an economic empowerment initiative of government and not a get-rich quick scheme for the tenderpreneurs.

The silence of the School Governing Bodies in this matter is intriguing because they are the ones who should be actively participating in these matters as representatives of parents.

Statement issued by Themba Mthembu, SACP KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Secretary, November 20 2013

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