The non-payment of school feeding scheme service providers has, once again, plunged the programme into crisis, leading them to threaten that pupils in KwaZulu-Natal will not have food when they return to school on Monday.
Service providers told The Mercury yesterday that they have not been paid for the last two months, adding that sit-ins at various department offices in KZN will take place next week.
The National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) service provider association has stated that its members have no money to buy food, and barring urgent interventions by the weekend, most pupils will go without meals when they return to schools. They have not been paid for March and April.
The department has acknowledged the challenge and revealed that it is working to address the matter of non-payment to service providers. Last year, it was reported that schools had not been receiving meals due to a mishandling of a school nutrition tender. The tender had been awarded to one supplier, who struggled to deliver the food. Following this debacle, the department was forced to cancel the tender and revert to its previous method of using multiple suppliers.
Thabang Mncwabe, Communications and Stakeholders Relations manager of the NSNP service provider association, warned that many service providers have not been paid.
“They have no money to buy food, so there will be no food when millions of pupils return to schools. The suppliers have no credit; their credit cards are fully used, and loan sharks are no longer giving them loans,” he said.
Sboniso Xulu, deputy chairperson of the organisation, called on all suppliers who have not been paid to gather at the district offices of the department to demand payment on Monday.
In a voice note, he said, “It is our view as the leadership of the organisation in KwaZulu-Natal that on Monday, we should all go to the different districts at 7am, wait for the senior officials we must engage with, and ask them to pay us so that we can buy food. It cannot be that the department failed to pay from their budget for the entire financial year; we should not be facing challenges in receiving payments. Those who were paid received only half of what they were owed.
“What is most important to us is that we get paid so that we can provide food. The officials will be at schools to check whether the food has been delivered, yet they have not paid us.”
DA MPL and spokesperson on Edu-cation Sakhile Mngadi expressed grave concern about the growing financial dysfunction in the provincial Department of Education, specifically regarding the non-payment of suppliers.
He claimed that this failure is now directly threatening the delivery of food to thousands of learners across the province, particularly through the National School Nutrition Programme, a vital intervention that feeds over 2 million learners daily.
“The implications of this failure are profound. Reports now indicate that some suppliers will not be able to deliver meals as early as Monday, potentially leaving thousands of children without food. These are not just operational oversights; they are moral failings and administrative crises that demand urgent attention.”
Department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said: “We are working on this and are hopeful that payments will be effected tomorrow.”
THE MERCURY
