School feeding scheme in crisis as payments stall

The KwaZulu-Natal education department yesterday made an undertaking to pay National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) service providers amid threats by the DA to have the department placed under administration for its “poor management” of the programme.

While the department insists it has so far paid 78% of the NSNP service providers, the contractors said those who have been paid have not been paid in full.

NSNP association representative Siboniso Xulu said despite the government having set aside funds for the NSNP programme, the KZN education department has shifted the financial burden for running the programme to the service providers.

Unpaid National School Nutrition Programme contracts

“We have not been paid for the work we did in March and April. We are forced to use our own money to keep the feeding scheme going because if we don’t, the children will starve,” he said.

“As things stand, some of us have not been paid a cent in the past two months while those who have been paid, have been paid half of what is due to them.”

South African Democratic Teachers Union provincial secretary Dolly Caluza said the union believes “the department has collapsed; it can’t do anything. As we speak, some Grade R practitioners have not been paid”.

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“The department is struggling to pay service providers for the school nutrition programme, acting personnel are not paid their acting allowances and some officials cannot attend important workshops.”

She said Grade R teachers have had their employment contracts terminated by the department. The teachers were on annual renewable contracts that ended at the end of March every year.

“This does not make sense as the department always renews the contracts.

Grade R teachers not paid

“We don’t understand why they remove them in the first place, so that workers are not subjected to the pain of not getting their salaries,” Caluza said.

“These workers are also subjected to a salary that does not match the qualifications and experience they have.

“We have engaged the employer on this and it promised to ask the office of the premier to assist with review of the issue, but it appears that was unsuccessful as there is no indication that these Grade R teachers would be relieved of this pain any time soon.”

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The DA’s KwaZulu-Natal education spokesperson and MPL Sakhile Mngadi said this was not an administrative hiccup but a “gross dereliction of duty and a broader systemic failure” by the provincial education authorities.