Food shortage hits North East schools

Pini Bothoko | Wednesday November 18, 2015 15:17

NED council chairperson, Florah Mpetsane revealed the crisis at the ongoing ordinary full council session on Monday.

“There is a shortage of food in all our primary schools because for a long time there has been insufficient milk, beans and beef,” said Mpetsane. “Pupils are being fed white samp without beans. However, efforts are being made by the Department of Food Relief Services to address this issue.” Later, the NED District Commissioner, Rapetse Mathumo told Mmegi that the problem stemmed from the issues they had with the suppliers who were awarded tenders for the various food items. He said some of the companies that were awarded tenders had queries concerning their tenders and ended up pulling out, causing shortages in the process. “For two years the schools have faced a shortage of milk and beans as well as an on and off shortage of beef,” he said.

“Schools have compromised to make sure that children are being fed. They have also struggled without beef stew for some time because there was a shortage of meat from the supplier of our suppliers, being the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) in Francistown.

“Children are being fed bread and white samp without beans whilst we are still working round the clock to address this condition,” he said.

The district’s public schools also have supply issues with sorghum, again due to the tender challenges. To mitigate the problem, the authorities are reported to have packaged sorghum meals from shops to supply their schools.

Mathumo said the decentralisation of the food supply tenders had affected delivery to schools in many ways. The tenders were moved from ministerial level to the councils, in recent years. Meanwhile Mpetsane also told councillors that pupils had managed to escape unscathed from two classroom blocks at Letsholathebe Primary School that caught fire and burnt to ashes last Monday.

The council chair said at present, the cause of the fire was not known, adding that the incident was a drawback as the district is faced with a shortage of classrooms.

“As you all know, we are still struggling to clear the primary school classroom backlog but I hope the office of the council secretary and district commissioner will take all necessary measures to normalise the situation,” said Mpetsane.