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IOL News
03-07-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Rising food prices jeopardise school nutrition programme for millions of learners
Services providers who provide food for schools' feeding schemes say the rising cost of food is impacting on their businesses. Image: Independent Newspapers Archives The National Student Nutrition Programme (NSNP) Service Providers Association has raised alarm over the rising prices of zero-rated food items, warning that the increases threaten the sustainability of the feeding scheme programme and could leave millions of schoolchildren without their only nutritious meal of the day. Spokesperson Thabang Mncwabe said the association had noted with deep concern recent reports indicating a significant increase in the prices of zero-rated food items, despite these products being exempt from Value-Added Tax. "According to the latest data, the average cost of key zero-rated staple foods including maize meal, brown bread, and samp has risen by over 4.1% in the past year," said Mncwabe. "The cost of a basic food basket has increased by R113, putting pressure not only on households but also on NSNP service providers who are mandated to deliver nutritious meals daily to millions of learners under stringent fixed-budget contracts." Mncwabe said the rising prices were having a direct and adverse effect on service providers. He explained that many of them are working within contracts that do not make provision for inflationary escalations or economic shocks. As a result, service providers are forced to either absorb the additional costs, compromising business sustainability, or reduce meal quality and portions, which undermines the objectives of the NSNP. He warned that if the issue is not urgently addressed, it may lead to service disruptions, delayed deliveries, and in the worst-case scenario, the complete withdrawal of service providers. "Such outcomes would have devastating consequences for the education and wellbeing of millions of learners who rely on the NSNP for their only nutritious meal of the day." Mncwabe called on the Department of Basic Education, the National Treasury, and other relevant stakeholders to urgently review the current pricing model and implement inflation-linked contract adjustments. He also appealed for emergency funding to cushion providers against further economic volatility and urged engagement with the Association to develop a sustainable pricing and procurement framework. He said the Association also supports exploring community-based procurement from local producers and farmers to improve cost-effectiveness and support local economies. "The NSNP Service Providers Association remains committed to the core mission of ensuring that no child goes to school hungry," said Mncwabe. "We reiterate our willingness to work collaboratively with government, civil society, and industry experts to develop lasting solutions to the challenges posed by rising food costs." THE MERCURY
IOL News
01-06-2025
- General
- IOL News
KwaZulu-Natal schools face food delivery problems due to non-payment of service providers
Service providers in the National School Nutrition Programme have warned that some KwaZulu-Natal schools will be without food for schools meals this week due to some service providers not being paid. Image: Pixabay Service providers contracted to feed KwaZulu-Natal schoolchildren have warned that some schools will not receive food deliveries on Monday, 2 June, due to non-payment of invoices by the provincial Department of Education. The National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) Service Providers Association says many of its members have not been paid for April and earlier invoices despite submitting all necessary documentation, and the department has offered no formal communication or explanation for the delay. The issue of payments, either not being made or being late, have been a challenge since the start of the school year. Last month, the payment issues was also raised by the services providers. The KZN education department admitted that there had been some service providers who were not paid and said this was due to system errors. NSNP association spokesperson Thabang Mncwabe said the non-payment of some service providers "places over a million learners across the province at risk of going without food on Monday'. 'It not only undermines the constitutional rights of learners especially under Section 29(1)(a) of the Constitution, but also sets a disheartening tone for Youth Month.' The association said the department is in breach of Section 38(1)(f) of the Public Finance Management Act, which requires valid invoices to be paid within 30 days. 'We cannot allow financial mismanagement, poor planning, and a continued disregard for legal obligations to compromise the dignity, health, and education of South Africa's children,' Mncwabe said. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading It called on the national Minister of Basic Education to urgently intervene and hold the provincial department accountable, while also demanding the immediate implementation of the Pretoria High Court ruling which the association affirms the rights of service providers to be paid on time. In response, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education admitted that some NSNP service providers were excluded from the most recent payment run, attributing it to technical problems related to the implementation of a new financial management system. 'The Department is affected following the implementation of the new Standard Charts of Accounts (SCOA V6), which includes a complete refreshing of the BAS technical environment,' it said. 'Whilst the Department captured all submitted invoices for the month of April and other previous months, a number of service providers were randomly omitted in the process,' it added. According to the department, the Provincial Treasury is investigating the cause of the omissions, and a special payment run has been scheduled for Tuesday, 3 June. Payments are expected to reflect by Friday, 6 June. MEC for Education Sipho Hlomuka appealed for understanding and urged schools to continue feeding learners where possible. 'We have requested that principals of schools whose service providers have been affected by this impasse humbly engage service providers to deliver food items to schools and also ensure that learners do not go hungry,' said Hlomuka. 'We call for patience and cooperation during this period of transition and frustration.' THE MERCURY
IOL News
07-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Service providers storm KZN Health and Education departments
The National School Nutrition Programme is a vital lifeline for over 9 million poor learners across the country. Image: Supplied TWO KwaZulu-Natal departments are struggling to pay their service providers, which has led to the latter storming their offices to demand their overdue payments. The KZN departments of Health and Education were on Monday confronted by unpaid service providers who demanded their payments and gave the departments ultimatums. Companies that are service providers for the South African National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP), popularly known as the school feeding scheme, said they have no idea how they will manage to survive after months of being unpaid by the Education Department. The service providers allege the department has been making empty promises for some time. Some said they are still waiting for payment for delivery of food from last year. The NSNP serves more than 2 million pupils across the province in 5400. A representative of the school feeding scheme service providers in KZN, Thabang Mncwabe, said service providers are going through a difficult time. "There are service providers who have not been paid since last year. Some are paid insufficient amounts. We don't know who takes the rest and where they take it because the national Department of Education pays out the full amount," said Mncwabe. "We had been relying on Ithala; since it's now closed, we're now at the mercy of loan sharks. Even they are tired of us because we fail to pay them. We keep looking over our shoulders because we owe loan sharks." The Department of Education promised to pay them on Thursday. In a statement the department said 78% of the service providers were paid in April and said the rest weren't paid because of glitches with the implementation of a new financial system. The head of the department, Nkosinathi Ngcobo, apologised to the service providers who were not paid. Today, the department issued a new statement. "As of 24 April 2025, 78% of the payments were successfully processed. Subsequent attempts to finalise the remaining payments on 25 April and 2 May were unsuccessful due to technical difficulties linked to the implementation of a new financial system, BAS Version 6, which is an upgrade from the previous BAS Version 5. The National Treasury's IT team is currently working around the clock to resolve the system failures. "The payment run that was scheduled to take place yesterday, 06 May 2025, was successful for the remaining 22% of unpaid service providers, and they will receive their payments on 09 May 2025. The department has full records of all unpaid service providers. These lists have been shared with district offices to ensure that affected service providers are kept informed and that no further disruptions occur in the provision of meals to learners. "We acknowledge the concerns raised by our valued service providers and wish to assure them that the department is doing everything possible to resolve the technical glitches affecting payment processes. The problem has nothing to do with the financial difficulties of the department, for the NSNP is paid from the grant allocation. "We remain committed to transparency, timeous communication, and the uninterrupted provision of meals to our learners across the Province of KwaZulu-Natal. As a department, we would like to thank all stakeholders for their patience and cooperation as we work to stabilise the system and maintain the integrity of the National School Nutrition Programme,' said Ngcobo.
eNCA
05-05-2025
- Health
- eNCA
KZN service providers not paid since March
PIETERMARITZBURG - KwaZulu-Natal School Nutrition Programme service providers are visiting the provincial education offices to inquire about payment. They say they have not been paid since March. The delay could have serious repercussions for the feeding scheme, with thousands of pupils possibly going hungry. Thabang Mncwabe from the NSNP Service Providers Association said the non-payment has caused severe financial strain for the providers. "They are hoping that today they're going to find answers and responses with immediate effect and payments will be affected before they depart from here," he said.
