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Joint media statement: Minister Motshekga, don’t let child hunger continue! Honour the spirit of the court judgment and provide meals to learners from today!
January 27, 2021
27 January 2021
Joint media statement: Minister Motshekga, don’t let child hunger continue! Honour the spirit of the court judgment and provide meals to learners from today!
#SchoolMealsNow #9MillionMeals #FamiliesNeedNSNP
Equal Education (EE), Equal Education Law Centre (EELC), and SECTION27 are bitterly disappointed and angry that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has failed to provide clear plans for resuming the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP). Learners have been forced to remain home for much longer than expected because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are concerned that the DBE has not made public its preparations to resume the NSNP, to fight hunger and malnutrition while schools are closed. We strongly believe this goes against a commitment the DBE made in October 2020, to ensure learners receive meals during a second wave of COVID-19 infections. To provide school meals only when classrooms reopen on 15 February also goes against the spirit of the court order which we won in July 2020, which confirmed that the DBE must provide meals for learners even then they do not attend school.