‘I have been severely stressed during the period’

SECTION27 and the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC) have approached the court on behalf of a number of learners, parents, teachers and school governing bodies in an attempt to get the government to feed millions of children who have gone hungry since the schools closed during the Covid-19 lockdown.

It was hoped that, once schools started re-opening, the school feeding schemes, which are planned and budgeted for, would resume in full. However, the Minister and the Department of Basic Education have opted, for now, to only feed Grade 7 and 12 children.

SECTION27 and EELC have filed a number of affidavits on behalf of their clients - Equal Education and the School Governing Bodies of two schools.

Maverick Citizen has been given access to affidavits from the SECTION27 and EELC clients and they make for harrowing reading. They tell a story of extreme hunger and poverty, but also of a government that has to be dragged to court to compel them to feed children who desperately need one meal a day, who have no source of food other than the school feeding scheme.

Learners’ affidavits, particularly, make for stomach-churning reading, but it is important to read their stories to try to understand the lived realities of people in small, off-the-map, far-flung villages in South Africa. People, even worse children, going hungry in South Africa is unforgivable. It is also important to pay tribute to the bravery of teachers, parents, school governing bodies and learners who are speaking out despite being fearful of intimidation and losing their jobs.

We publish extracts from 15 affidavits and even though these documents will become public in the courts, SECTION27 and EELC requested that we do not identify their clients by name for fear of intimidation.

Affidavit 6

Melita (not real name) lives in Vhulaudzi, a village in Limpopo. She is  also a parent to two children attending school at Vhulaudzi Secondary School. In her affidavit she explains how her family’s life has been affected by her children not receiving any meals through the NSNP at their school during this lockdown.

'I have been severely stressed during this period but because I am a mother, I have to make a plan to make sure my family does not go hungry.'

Melita (not real name) lives in Vhulaudzi, a village in Limpopo. She is  also a parent to two children attending school at Vhulaudzi Secondary School. In her affidavit she explains how her family’s life has been affected by her children not receiving any meals through the NSNP at their school during this lockdown.

“I am a single mother to five children. The father of my children is deceased. My eldest daughter is married and does not live with me. I do however live with four of my other children.

“My son is doing grade 10 at Vhulaudzi Secondary School. My daughter is doing grade 8, also at Vhulaudzi. I have another son, who is 16 years old and has been out of school for a number of years as I was advised that he was too “slow”. I hope that one day I will be able to afford to send him to an appropriate school.  Lastly, I have an infant daughter, born on 27 May 2020.

“I have been working at Vhulaudzi from early 2019 where I ordinarily earn R750 a month. I also receive Child Support Grants (CSG) for two of my children. These are the only sources of the household income which supports the five of us, the total of which is approximately R1 630.

“Prior to the lockdown, I used to buy food by using a portion of the grant money I received. The money was able to sustain us because if the children eat at school, I only had to worry about providing supper and the money for lunch would be used for other necessities. Now that my children do not eat lunch at school, the household income is stretched and insufficient to sustain us.

“During the lockdown, I’ve had to use more money than usual out of my budget for food. I would make sure that I do not compromise on buying food because I fear that my children will resort to crime should there not be food in the house. I have had to sacrifice other essentials from my budget such as toiletries and detergent just to be able to buy enough food.

“Even in terms of the food I buy, I have had to cut things like sugar and tea in order to be able to buy sufficient essential items like pap and vegetables. It has not been easy at all. When my children have asked me to buy tea and sugar I have had to sit them down and explain that we simply cannot afford these items.

“What has made the situation worse for my family during this period is that I have not been getting paid by the school since the lockdown. At this point, I still have not been paid for the month of May and it is unclear when I will be paid or if I will even be paid at all.

“I have been severely stressed during this period but because I am a mother, I have to make a plan to make sure my family does not go hungry. I have had to resort to taking loans from a loan shark in order to make sure my family survives. When the loan shark asks for his money, I am unable to pay him because I also have not been paid and I also need to ensure that there is enough food at home. The weight on my shoulders is heavy.

“I have seen some people in my community accessing food parcels. I enquired from the lady who works in the municipality and was signing people up for food parcels about whether I could get helped with food parcels. I was told that because I receive two CSGs, I do not qualify to get a food parcel.

“Before the CSG increase I used to receive R440 per child. In May I received R790 for each child and then R690 from June. This extra money did assist me somewhat but it has not been sufficient especially because I have not been paid my cleaner salary. I have not been able to buy toiletries and we still ran out of pap by the end of May. 

“At this point in time, because two of my children are neither in grade 7 or grade 12, they are still at home and are unable to access the NSNP. The situation is likely to remain the same and I am not sure how we are going to cope. I wish my children were able to get meals from school as that will ease the burden I am currently carrying.” DM/MC