The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) School Nutrition Suppliers Forum is threatening to take the provincial Education Department to court after the Department’s decision to terminate their three-year contract to supply food to schools.
Last year, other service providers sought an interdict to stop the Department from awarding new contracts for the lucrative programme nutrition programme.
It feeds more than two-million children at over 5 000 schools in the province.
The Department, however, won the court challenge and appointed new service providers that were awarded three-year contracts.
Chairperson of the Nutrition Suppliers Forum, Lindani Matiwane says, “Reason being that we have to appoint an interim committee was due, merely to the fact that we have got this situation which needs our urgent attention regarding the announcement of the Department. The intention to terminate our contracts, we have seen, it has been publicised on national media, radios and newspapers. It is a highly possibility that we are going to find ourselves in court.”
Meanwhile teacher union NATU’s Deputy president, Allan Thompson, is calling for the Public Protector to investigate the tender issue regarding the nutrition programme in the province.
Thompson says it seems the issue goes deeper than they thought.
“In the province of KwaZulu-Natal, the issue of the tender system, specifically for awarding to the school nutritional programme is always having problems – because other provinces are not having the problems. The province of KwaZulu-Natal is the one that is having a significant problem – that is why we want the Public Protector to intervene and resolve the matter once and for all.”
