Johannesburg - ActionSA and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) have welcomed the scrapping of the school nutrition contract, which saw schools in the province failing to provide food to learners since the start of the second term.
This contractual debacle has resulted in weeks of debate surrounding the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP), with the contractor choosing finally opting out of the contract this week.
On Wednesday, not only was the contract invalidated by the ANC in the province, who called for its immediate termination, but the service provider, Pacina Pty Ltd, resolved to ‘’opt’’ out of the tender agreement.
In a statement on Wednesday, IFP leader Velinkosini Hlabisa said it has called for the termination of the contract after KZN learners had to attend school on empty stomachs due to the failure of the new service provider to provide food to schools in the province.
‘’Very surprisingly, the announcement to terminate Pacina Retail (Pty) Ltd as a service provider for the NSNP in KwaZulu-Natal has been made by the ANC, not the provincial government.’’
‘’While we do not want to make any assumptions as to what this might mean, it seems to imply that it was the ANC that instructed the provincial government to appoint this incompetent company,’’ Hlabisa said.
ActionSA KZN chairperson Zwakele Mncwango echoed Hlabisa’s sentiments, saying that it was unfortunate that more than 5400 schools had to suffer due to political interference in the scheme.
‘’Unfortunately, while we welcome the company’s decision to pull out of the tender, we cannot allow the matter to fizzle out after causing great dysfunction amongst thousands of schools and millions of lives. We hope that an announcement for a forensic investigation into the matter by an independent body will soon follow," Mncwango said.
He added that the party views this matter in a serious light after the ANC called it a minor issue.
‘’We also welcome the statement published by the African National Congress (ANC) in the province calling for the immediate termination of the contract after labelling the issue of schools not receiving food a 'minor hiccup'. It is ActionSA’s pressure that has made the ANC recognise the severity of the crisis,’’ he said.
The Star