GDE denies Tembisa pupils 'stalked by hunger' report
The Gauteng Department of Education has rubbished media reports that pupils in some schools in Tembisa are facing hunger due to a crisis in the National School Nutrition Programme.
The department described the article in the Sowetan newspaper, titled 'Hunger Stalks Gauteng Pupils' as factually incorrect.
It says the claims has caused unnecessary alarm among the public and school communities.
Gauteng Education spokesperson Steve Mabona said the service provider refused to accept a newly allocated delivery schedule and consequently failed to deliver food to nine schools.
"It is unfortunate that the publication chose to ignore the detailed official response by the department on this specific matter and selectively used minimal information while disregarding some facts shared by the department prior to publishing."
Mabona said all deserving children were served a meal this week.
"We can confirm that some service providers continued to augment their deliveries throughout the week.
"As a contingency, we have today on Thursday, utilised other service providers to deliver food to all nine affected schools in Tembisa and Ivory Park."
