The department of basic education has cancelled the R10bn school feeding scheme tender which would have centralised the distribution of meals to millions of pupils in 19,000 schools across the country.
Head of department Mathanzima Mweli wrote to bidders on Friday informing them the bid was cancelled on the instruction of the basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube.
In a memo titled “Appointment of a service provider for project management services on the modernisation of the national school's nutrition programme, for a period of 10 years with an option to extend for a further period of three years”, Mweli wrote: “Thank you for your interest and participation in the tender process.”
Gwarube confirmed to TimesLIVE that she gave the instruction to cancel the tender.
“Yes, I can confirm that I have instructed the DG [director-general] to cancel the national school nutrition programme tender that was to be issued for a period of 10 years pegged at close to R10bn per year,” she said.
“It was important to and remains so, that I conduct my due diligence as the new minister on the new strategy that seeks to streamline and centralise the programme.
“The truth is that this programme is too big to fail. It provides daily meals to 9.7-million learners. Often this is the only meal of the day they have. I need to protect that at all costs.”
Last month Gwarube halted the tendering process while she did her due-diligence process and, after that instruction, decided to cancel the entire tender to avoid any legal or financial adverse finding against the department.
At the time, she said she had concerns about the proposed programme, particularly the integrity of the procurement process for such a large expenditure and the capacity of any single service provider to reach more than 9-million learners across the country every day.
Gwarube said now that the tender has been cancelled, she will be going back to the drawing board with the department to seek ways to make the rollout of the feeding scheme as efficient as possible with minimum disruptions and zero corruption.
Before deciding on this strategy, I needed to ensure that we are not opening ourselves to great risk of non-delivery of food due to the centralised procurement model
— Siviwe Gwarube, basic education minister
She said her strategy had the support of the cabinet and she will soon make an announcement on how the national department will assist provinces to ensure the scheme runs smoothly.
The modernisation strategy which had already gone to tender was conceptualised and decided on before her assumption of office, she said.
“Before deciding on this strategy, I needed to ensure that we are not opening ourselves to great risk of non-delivery of food due to the centralised procurement model.”
Reacting to a Sunday Times report on the halting of the tender last month, Mweli said the department initiated the process for the modernisation of the scheme in July 2023.
“From a governance point of view, this matter was extensively processed by the heads of education committee on various occasions during 2023 and, working with the Council of Education Ministers as the final model for the modernisation, was adopted by council in early 2024,” he said.
The issuing of the final terms of reference for the tender was thus based on the extensive processing of the modernisation project by the relevant mandating structures of the basic education sector and not by the management of the department of basic education as the article alleged, he said.
Mweli added that the department had held several engagements with the National Treasury and obtained the opinion of a respected senior counsel on ensuring that the modernisation process complied with the law.
The rationale of the modernisation project was to ensure that the state maximised its buying power by creating a mechanism to afford maximum benefits from economies of scale, he said. This would enable the government to get better value for money and by so doing improve the quality and quantity of the meal for children.
He said at the time the assertion that the department was seeking to award the contract to reach around 10-million learners daily to “a single entity” was mischief-making and a deliberate attempt to vilify the genuine efforts of the department to improve the programme.
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