New fears over school nutrition scheme

WITH the delay in reaching an amicable settlement between the Kwazulu-natal Department of Education and Pacina Retail over the termination of the company’s contract, there are fears that the school feeding scheme might be heading for collapse again.

This fear was prompted by the department, which issued a memorandum last week to schools asking them not to release pupils early because of food shortages.

In the memorandum, the department said it had come to its attention that there were some schools that had threatened to cook only when they receive food items for this month (June) even when there was surplus stock from last month (May).

The department directed schools to accept food items, even if it was not for the full month. The department has been involved in a legal tug-of-war with Pacina Retail since April.

Another issue was the department’s alleged delay in paying service providers. A contractor in the ethekwini district said the delay had caused some of the contractors to fail to order full stock in advance for this month. The contractor also said they were confused about whether to sign the new service-level agreement while the department had not resolved its legal issue with Pacina.

“We heard that the department was reluctant to let us sign this new contract. What we are hearing is that they want us to sign one year or less than that,” said the contractor.

A source with banking knowledge said that having seen the condition in the new contract which stated that it was a stop-gap contract, there was no banking institution that would provide loans under that contract, since it meant it could be terminated at any time. Ithala was reported to have rejected loan applications in April since there was no contract.

Department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi did not reveal at what stage the department’s talks with Pacina were, regarding the termination of the company’s contract. Pacina’s spokesperson Thobani Zikalala said no agreement had been reached yet.