THE Pretoria High Court has ordered the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to resume the school’s nutrition programme to nearly 10 million eligible learners with immediate effect, regardless of whether they are back in class.
The matter was brought before the court by Equal Education, Section-27 and two Limpopo school governing bodies.
The applicants argued that the COVID-19 induced national lockdown did not serve as a basis to deprive pupils of their right to nutrition.
There had been mounting concerns that the lockdown period, and the consequent closure of schools exacerbated hunger among children in the country who received their only daily meals at school.
The school feeding scheme was suspended when schools shut down in March, and since that time the Department of Basic Education has failed to honour the promises it made to reinstate the programme and to ensure learners would not go hungry.
Equal Education and the
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