Picture for illustration. Picture: iStock
Over 1,000 pupils in a Limpopo school are going hungry every day because a service provider, contracted by the department of basic education, has failed to deliver food this month.
According to the school’s governing body (SGB), the last time pupils were properly fed at the school was in July 2021.
Because of this, lessons at Lephalala Primary School in Botlokwa, outside Polokwane, are only held from 7am to 11am. After 11am, the pupils and teachers are forced to pack their bags and leave, the SGB said on Tuesday.
The school has 1,172 pupils.
Evelyn Phosa, the secretary of the school governing body, said it had been seven months of hell for the pupils and the teachers.
“Some of these pupils come from impoverished families. Others are child-headed families without parents to fend for them. That is how important this nutritional programme is to us, parents, teachers and the pupils,” said Phosa.
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Phosa said the supplier started delivering food in dribs and drabs in July last year.
“He started delivering half of what was expected and later he delivered late or not at all. This month the problem got out of hand. Since the beginning of this month, nothing was delivered. When we asked him, he will make promises and later send us from pillar to post. Because of this, some children started bunking classes because they were hungry.”
“We have had countless meetings with the department about the matter, but nothing came out of the discussion. We are happy now that action has been taken and all will become normal again. But we don’t want a repeat of this, because when children fail, teachers and parents are always to blame,” said Phosa.
Sylvia Letsoalo, a parent with two children at the school, said she is forced to use her children’s grant to buy food that her children then took to school.
“I am an unemployed single mother of five. I use social grants to put bread on the table for my family. So buying more food to carry to school was more exorbitant for me because in this family we always eat from hand to mouth,” she said.
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On Monday the department of basic education in Polokwane said it has learnt about the situation at the school and said it will investigate and take action where possible.
“I have established that the non-performance was indeed noted and the process to suspend the services of the service provider is being finalised today. We are going to identify a temporary service provider to take over while the defaulting service provider is given a month to correct the problem,” said Martin Mashaba, the acting spokesperson at the Limpopo department of education.
“Should he not provide measures to correct the non-performance we will proceed to terminate his contract,” said Mashaba.
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