Durban — Africa’s non-banking financial services provider Sanlam has called on corporate South Africa to rally in the face of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape’s school nutrition crisis after donating R1.5 million towards relief.
Sanlam said that as the ongoing food shortage crisis spreads across KZN and the EC, it appealed to fellow corporates to band together to tackle the crisis following the collapse of the public school feeding schemes in the provinces.
The company said that efforts are afoot by the respective departments to resolve the crisis in each province. However, there’s a real need to address the issue in the interim.
Sanlam has donated R1.5 million towards the relief of pupils in KZN and the EC.
The donation equates to 310 000 meals between May and July 2023, and it will go directly to the impacted schools in the provinces and will be facilitated by the Lunchbox Fund.
Sanlam has a long-standing relationship with the Lunchbox Fund, a key service provider for the Sanlam Foundation Education Programme. The Education Programme is aimed at helping children from low-income communities in South Africa get the education they desperately need to build a life free of poverty.
Sanlam market development group executive Karl Socikwa said he believes that the situation is beyond a food shortage crisis.
“It impacts entire households and communities. It places added pressure on caregivers who already find themselves financially strained, and it’s an additional barrier to childhood education and development which has a detrimental knock-on effect. Poor education hinders a child’s ability to generate future income and drives our nation’s already high unemployment rate. It would be amiss to label this a food shortage crisis when we are, in fact, facing a humanitarian crisis,” Socikwa said.
Socikwa said corporates have a responsibility to act swiftly and together.
“The Thrive by Five Index report found that 1 in 18 children have signs of long-term malnutrition in South Africa, and we need a rapid and collective response to the situation from corporates in our country. If our children are starved and vulnerable, our future economic sustainability is threatened. To this end, it’s our responsibility to come to the aid of these learners.
“We at Sanlam call on our fellow corporates to join us, so together we can build a financially confident and resilient population on the African continent,” Socikwa said.
Sanlam said that nutrition has a significant influence on learning and is a key factor in productivity and concentration. Without access to food, impacted schools are sending pupils home early, where many face the same raw reality, as school is their only hope for a meal.
Meanwhile, according to media reports, there is an alleged crisis relating to the administration of the school nutrition programme in the EC. It was reported that pupils have gone without receiving meals at school for almost a month due to a delay in the allocation of funds.
“The impact of malnutrition on learners is well documented, and this failure to provide learners with the required nutrition is a potential violation of the learners' right to basic nutrition.
“Considering the recent provincial hearing held by the SAHRC on this matter, we are deeply disappointed by reports of the situation and will be conducting monitoring to ascertain whether the allocation of funds to the affected schools has been affected by the relevant department in the Eastern Cape government. In the event of non-compliance, the SAHRC will investigate whether mitigating measures have been undertaken to address the crisis,” the South African Human Rights Commission said.
Meanwhile, last week, the KwaZulu-Natal government announced that the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) rollout is in full steam across the province.
Provincial government spokesperson Bongi Gwala said 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.
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.
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