Children in Swaziland
should prepare themselves for starvation as the government once again fails to
deliver free food to schools, a school principal has warned.
At the start of the new
year a continuing food crisis is hitting schools across the kingdom, despite
government promises that it had solved the problem.
At the heart of the crisis is
the Swazi Government’s inability to pay food suppliers.
In the latest twist in the
saga the Swazi Observer reported on
Thursday (1 February 2018) that schools relying on government aid – known as
the zondle programme – ‘must brace themselves for starvation as the Ministry of
Education and Training has failed to deliver food to schools on time’.
It said food had been promised by the Minister of
Education and Training Dr Phineas Magagula last year but it had still not
arrived in many schools.
It reported school principals
said some pupils were sick and on medication and depended on the food which was
provided at school.
It quoted one principal who
wanted to remain anonymous, ‘The pupils should brace themselves for starvation
because there is no available food in the school, and they have exhausted the
food that was left last year.’
Principals in schools
around the Shiselweni region told the newspaper that some pupils went to school
without having eaten anything and relied on the feeding programme. ‘They cannot stand the long hours
on empty stomachs,’ one said.
Acting Principal at the Ministry of Education and
Training Dr Sibongile Mtshali told the Observer
food would be delivered to various schools soon, but did not specify the exact
date of delivery.
The schools hunger crisis has been going on for at
least a year. In August 2017, members of
parliament in Swaziland accused the Ministry of Education and Training of lying
in a report on severe hunger in the kingdom’s schools.
They were told that the
crisis was over and that school committees were stealing food
intended for children.
A progress reported tabled
to the Swazi House of Assembly by Minister of Education and Training Phineas
Magagula was rejected. The shortage escalated after the government did not pay
its bills to suppliers. The food includes rice, mealie-meal, cooking oil,
beans, and peanut butter.
In a report in May 2017, the World
Food Program estimated 350,000 people of Swaziland’s 1.3 million population
were in need of food assistance. WFP helped 65,473 of them. It said it was
regularly feeding 52,000 orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) aged under
eight years at neighbourhood care points. About 45 percent of all children in
thought to be OVCs.
It reported chronic malnutrition affected 26 percent
of all children in Swaziland aged under five.
See also
‘CHILDREN
COULD SOON DIE OF HUNGER’
BAD FOOD POISONS 200 PUPILS
NO FOOD SO SCHOOLKIDS SENT HOME
HUNGER FORCES SCHOOLS TO CLOSE EARLY
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2017/02/hunger-forces-schools-to-close-early.html
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