Pupils from a Northern Cape school have been learning on empty stomachs since February because their feeding scheme money was spent on disaster management.
And three schools in North West used R1.2m of funds earmarked for the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) to buy “Panasonic products” and to build pavements and carports.
These were among the damning findings by the auditor-general’s office after visits to 180 schools across the country that offered meals to pupils.
The AG’s office also conducted an audit of school infrastructure projects nationally, as well as audits of five schools in KwaZulu-Natal that were damaged during the April storms.
A total of R8.1bn was budgeted for the NSNP for April 2021 to March for about 9-million pupils from 21,000 schools.
The AG’s report, which will be discussed during a basic education portfolio committee meeting next Tuesday, stated that the pupils from the Northern Cape school “were denied an opportunity to benefit from the hunger elimination programme”.
“This was due to a lack of proper guidance from provincial education departments for schools to get proper authorisation and to do monthly and quarterly reconciliations of the NSNP expenditure.”
At other schools across the country, food items were not delivered on time and some were not delivered at all “resulting in schools experiencing a shortage of food items”.
At five of the 25 schools visited in Gauteng, the deliveries made by suppliers were not in accordance with the school delivery schedule. The items delivered to these schools were less than the items stated on the delivery schedule.
— Auditor-general report
“For example, at five of the 25 schools visited in Gauteng, the deliveries made by suppliers were not in accordance with the school delivery schedule. The items delivered to these schools were less than the items stated on the delivery schedule.”
The AG’s office found that NSNP school committees and co-ordinators at most schools were not functional and “some did not know what their roles and responsibilities were”.
It also found that food handlers in some of the 180 schools visited did not use the prescribed personal protective equipment and that “meals were prepared in an unconducive environment”.
An audit of 15 mobile classrooms and a mobile kitchen at five storm-damaged schools in KwaZulu-Natal was also conducted.
A total of 356 schools were damaged in the province and the cost of repairs was estimated at R235m.
The KwaZulu-Natal education department earmarked R18.8m for the procurement of 76 mobile classrooms, as an interim measure, to replace those that were damaged.
The report stated that the department provided a list of 53 completed mobile classrooms at the start of the audit, but all 16 units that were sampled were not completed at the date of the site visits on May 26 and 27.
“No handing over had taken place. There was outstanding work at the date of the audit.”
The report stated: “Reporting mobile units as completed creates the perception that the units are ready for or already in use, thereby circumventing management intervention to fast track the use of the mobile units for teaching and learning to take place.”
The mobile kitchen bought for Mthubi Primary School at a cost of R187,130 was delivered only on May 25, a day before the site visit.
At Maphephetheni Secondary School, “the mobile units were located one to three metres away from the eroding embankment made of fill soil excavated from the back of the property”.
The audit found that rain-damaged furniture, equipment, stationery and books had not been replaced.
Concerning the provision of new infrastructure at schools nationally, the report stated that “the departments are struggling to provide quality education facilities in a successful and timely manner”.
At Batlharo Tlhaping Secondary School in Northern Cape the new hostels were certified as being fit for use “yet there was no electrical connection to the main supply”.
The value of the electrical installations was R2.3m.
The building project at Dinizulu Senior Secondary School in Eastern Cape was delayed by 40 months as “delayed payments by the department caused many stop-and-go’s”.
“There were also poor workmanship and quality issues.”
The newly built Kidston Junior Primary School in Eastern Cape, which was completed in October last year, had only 375 pupils though it was designed for 974.
The urinals in the ablution block at Silindokuhle Primary School in Free State “are too high for pupils and not fit for purpose”.
The report highlighted an additional R28m incurred during the construction of Jubilee Park Primary School in Eastern Cape “due to poor planning by the implementing agent and the professional team.
The original cost of the school was R77m.
The construction of Malebogo Primary School in Free State achieved “only partial completion on March 31, about five years later than the planned completion”.
The report stated that during a site visit in June, “some deliverables such as the hall, were still outstanding as the contractor prioritised completion of the learning and teaching facilities”.
The cost of the project increased by almost R24m from R44m to R67.9m.
KwaZulu-Natal education department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi told TimesLIVE Premium that the mobile classrooms were installed but there were “minor snags”.
“The department, together with the AG, identified that there are quality issues that need to be attended to. The department will only issue completion certificates once all outstanding minor snag items have been attended to.”
He said they indicated to the AG that they were attending to the issue of the mobile classrooms that were positioned close to the embankment at Maphephethu Secondary School.
Northern Cape education department spokesperson Geoffrey van der Merwe said he could respond only on Friday.
North West education department spokesperson Elias Malindi said he was still awaiting response from a manager.
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