Durban — The KwaZulu-Natal government has announced that the rollout of the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) is in full steam across the province.
This was revealed after a provincial executive council meeting chaired by Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube on Wednesday.
Provincial government spokesperson Bongi Gwala said the executive council received an update on the NSNP which revealed that pupils in schools across KZN are receiving their nutritious meals daily.
Gwala said that concerted efforts by the provincial government of ensuring that nutritious meals are provided to pupils come after reports that some schools did not receive their food deliveries resulting in pupils not being able to enjoy their expected meals.
The NSNP, a government programme that deals with several challenges facing communities such as poverty and unemployment, feeds no less than 2.4 million children daily across the province.
“The Executive Council received a report that the challenges facing the school nutrition programme in the province have been addressed and children are indeed being fed in schools,” Gwala said.
He said that the latest report comes amid ongoing oversight visits led by Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube to assess the implementation of the feeding programme is schools across all districts.
He also said that tracing teams continue to make follow-ups and are monitoring the roll-out of the NSNP using an online tool, Geospatial Technology that derives real-time data into the KZN Information and Innovation Hub.
Business Intelligence is used to draw analysis on the reports generated through the online tool, he said.
“The Executive Council also raised concern about misleading reports regarding the non-delivery of food in some schools which upon investigation, it was discovered that those schools which were reported to not having food had in fact received food deliveries,” Gwala said.
He said that all community structures have been requested to work with the government and report any challenges in order to ensure that there are no further disruptions to the programme.
Meanwhile, last week, the Daily News reported that the Department of Education was hopeful that by Monday, May 8, 2023, they would have eradicated all the problems that the schools were experiencing.
At the time, department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said he was confident that pupils at all schools are being fed.
He said the situation had changed with the intervention of government departments in the province and the establishment of a task team.
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Daily News