New school feeding plan
Bhisho to involve small-scale farmers
PREMIER Phumulo Masualle’s government is racing against time to replace the provincial school nutrition model.
The programme is estimated to be worth more than R1-billion a year.
Instead of purchasing perishable goods such as vegetables, milk and meat from large retailers, Masualle’s government wants to share the contract among local farmers.
His spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said school nutrition and hospital food were procured from multiple traders at high prices.
“Now the province, working with the department of rural development and agrarian reform, will explore utilisation of land for food production.
“Here, small-scale farmers and cooperatives in the province will be encouraged to supply schools, community and daycare centres and hospitals with agricultural products such as vegetables, milk and meat.”
Kupelo said the state would also look at the “optimal” use of existing abattoirs.
He said this formed part of the local economic development procurement framework that Masualle announced during his 2016 state of the province address.
The provincial government spends more than R1-billion annually on school nutrition.
The province is also looking to centralise and localise the purchase of school stationery, office furniture, bottled water, protective clothing, cleaning material, fertiliser and media advertising.
Kupelo said it had been decided at a meeting on Wednesday that November 30 should be the deadline for the implementation of the plan.
Treasury was entrusted with the mammoth task, he added.
The school nutrition model has been a topic of discussion in internal ANC structures for 15 years.
Provincial ANC secretary Oscar Mabuyane last year told the Daily Dispatch a local group calling itself the Eastern Cape Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMES) Suppliers Forum had approached the party on how school nutrition could be managed while creating permanent jobs in the province.
“The ANC as a governing party is responsible for policy development and policy formulation. Our manifesto for any election is informed by what we are going to do if people vote us into power,” said Mabuyane. “The group [suppliers forum] held a view that the current school nutrition model does not help the governing party to achieve some of its goals set out in the manifesto.
“One of those is the issue of job creation.
“They put it nicely that in the current model, we don’t create a single job out of the billion rand that is pumped into the market or the economy of the province, while if we can look at different models that can still give the same kind of service to the people we can create up to 22 000 jobs.”
The secretary admitted the current model was not working, adding that teachers and school principals were kept busy managing the programme instead of managing schools.
“Instead of being in class teaching, teachers and principals spent most of their time queuing at retail shops buying food for feeding schemes.
“If you go and buy in these retail shops, they are not going to create extra jobs or increase salaries of its staff simply because there is a school that comes once a month and spends R20 000 on food.
“Our interest is that every cent and rand that government spends from the public fiscus must add value to that community by creating jobs,” Mabuyane said.