The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled yesterday that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and its associate-provincial structures should reinstate the National School Nutrition Programme effective immediately.
Delivering the stinging ruling on Friday, July 17, the Acting Deputy Judge-President Surel Potterill found:
“that all qualifying learners, regardless of whether or not they have resumed classes at their respective schools, are entitled to receive a daily meal as provided for under the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP).”
The matter was brought before the court by Equal Education (EE) and the school governing bodies (SGBs) of two Limpopo schools after DBE did not provide school food upon the resumption of the school calender (from June) to non-attending school learners.
Nutritional meals for pupils were held back when schools closed nationally in March due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic which triggered a nationwide lockdown.
At the moment, the only leaners receiving nutritional meals daily are those who have returned to shool premises for contact learning. The judgement indicates that DBE and eight (8) provincial educational authorities failed on their mandates to feed all deserving learners.
More poignantly, the court held that the Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga breached her duty by not ensuring eligible learners were fed from the time of re-opening schools on “June 8”, regardless of being at schools or not.
As a matter of course, the verdict did not include the period during the hard (“Level 5”) and subsequent national lockdowns – prior to the opening of schools.
Accordingly, the Western Cape government was not part of the proceedings since it had already restarted the nutritional feeding scheme when schools re-opened.
In the declaratory order, Judge Potterill, found that:
“the First Respondent (the Minister) is under a constitutional and statutory duty to ensure that the NSNP provides a daily meal to all qualifying learners, to ensure the proper exercise of the rights of learners to education and to enhance their learning capacity, whether they are attending school or studying away from school as a result of the Covid19 pandemic.”
EE and SGBs were represented by Equal Education Law Centre and Section27 in their legal quest to secure the provision of nutritional meals to all qualifying school-going pupils in South Africa.
DBE lost the case with costs, including those of the three counsel: Geoff Budlender SC, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC and Thabang Pooe – representing the applicants.