Civil rights groups Equal Education, Equal Education Law Centre and SECTION27 said on Wednesday that they were disappointed that Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga had failed to resume the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP).

In a statement, the organisations expressed concern that the DBE has not made public its preparations to resume the NSNP while schools are closed owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last year, the DBE committed to ensure that the NSNP would continue to fight hunger and malnutrition while schools are closed.

The organisations pointed out that many families are struggling to provide balanced meals for their children and many learners received their last regular meal when schools closed on December 15, 2020.

“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 when they do not attend school,” the organisations said.

They called out Eastern Cape Education MEC Fundile Gade for stating that school meals will only be provided when learners are back in school.

The organisations have written to the DBE and provincial education departments to clarify this statement.