Hannah Omarjeee | homarjee@radioislam.co.za
25 April 2023 | 17:00 CAT
3 min read

Photo Credit: Facebook

Yet again, the spotlight is on KwaZulu-Natal for all the wrong reasons. This time regarding the KZN nutrition debacle, leaving many learners hungry and unable to sustain themselves throughout the day.

The Educators Union of South Africa (EUSA) said it is extremely angered by the corruption displayed by those at the helm of the KZN Department of Education. The union says it is unacceptable to treat corruption as negligible and trivial when it directly impacts the most vulnerable of our society – schoolchildren. EUSA asserts that those caught with their hands in the cookie jar should be charged with treason as this is not just negligence.

Children who do not have access to food at school will choose to look for a meal elsewhere, leading to high levels of absenteeism amongst learners, impacting their performance and may even be a driving factor in the high rates of matric dropouts. All these issues contribute to illiteracy, unemployment and unskilled labour in the country.

President of EUSA, Scelo Bhengu, joined Radio Islam International to unpack the KZN nutrition scandal.

“From what we have been able to gather, as the union, is that the Department of Education, without proper analysis, decided to award one man a tender of R2 billion to supply food to the schools.”

Whistleblowers attempting to draw awareness to the issue have released photographs showcasing the corruption in schools across the province.

EUSA calls for suspending and removing MEC Mbali Frazer, HOD Nkosinathi Ngcobo and Thanduxolo Cele. According to Bhengu, EUSA believes this will send a strong message to other provinces and officials considering gambling with children’s lives.

“For them to give a tender to an incompetent someone, who has never supplied any food to any school, they just decided to give him that tender because he is politically connected to some people in the high office of the ruling party.”

Bhengu believes the solution is to give the principal and governing body the responsibility to purchase and supply the food.

Listen to the full interview with Ml Junaid Kharsany on The Daily Round Up here