Since the start of the second school term, some schools in these provinces have not been providing meals to learners.
The National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) ensures that learners receive at least one meal a day while at school. The recent interruption of this service, reportedly due to budgetary and administrative issues, has left many learners without food since the beginning of the term.
Committee Chairperson, Joy Maimela, highlighted the importance of the NSNP as these meals are often the only food learners have access to.
In many cases, these are the only meals that learners receive. They do not have food at home. So, now we are taking away that meal; learners cannot learn on an empty stomach.
Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube told the Basic Education Parliamentary Committee that the NSNP’s budget is ringfenced and cannot be repurposed. The minister is set to engage with provincial education departments to reach a solution as soon as possible.
KZN Provides Update on Delayed Payments
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education says a payment run conducted on 6 May 2025 was successful, and the remaining 22% of unpaid service providers are expected to receive their payments on 9 May 2025.
As of 24 April 2025, 78% of the payments to service providers had been successfully processed. However, further attempts on 25 April and 2 May were delayed due to technical issues related to the rollout of a new financial system.
The provincial education department received that the National Treasury’s IT team is actively working to resolve these system failures.
Head of Department Nkosinathi Ngcobo assured service providers that the department is working tirelessly to resolve system challenges in order to process payments.
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,
Ngcobo added that non-payments are not related to financial difficulties, as NSNP funds come from a dedicated grant. They said they are committing to transparency to ensure all service providers are paid.
We remain committed to transparency, timeous communication, and the uninterrupted provision of meals to our learners across the Province of KwaZulu-Natal.
