Programme Director,
Local leaders and community of Lady Frere,
MEC for Education, Mr Mandla Makupula,
CEO of Tiger Brands, Mr Peter Matlare,
Chairperson of Tiger Brands Foundation, Dr Miriam Altman,
Trustees of Tiger Brands Foundation,
Principal of Gqebenya JSS, Mr Gatyeni,
Members of the School Governing Body,
Educators, learners and parents,
Distinguished Guests,
Molweni kuni nonke.
Please accept our warm greetings on this the 16th day of Freedom Month. It’s a good day and a good month to celebrate the 10 Millionth School Breakfast served by the Tiger Brands Foundation in partnership with our department.
For making this partnership possible, we say thank you to the leadership of Tiger Brands, to educators and learners of Gqebenya JS School, to the community of Lady Frere, and not least, to the Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Education.
In the absence of any one of these stakeholders, Mr Matlare and his team would not have made this remarkable history of bringing to the Eastern Cape, the 10 millionth of the breakfast served by the Tiger Brands Foundation to primary school learners in the country.
I find it to be very amazing that the company has been able to keep track of the number of meals it has served to deserving children since the first meal back in July 2011. But more fascinating, and welcomed, is the thoughtful decision on the part of Tiger Brands to bring this 10 millionth meal to the Eastern Cape, during Freedom month.
Most importantly, the Tiger Brands Foundation has done so in the very month in which our country and the world observe the 20th anniversary of the death of two outstanding giants of the struggle, both born and bred in the Eastern Cape – Cde OR Tambo and Cde Chris Hani.
We remember also Cde Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu, a daring young lion who was hanged in April 1979 by the racist apartheid government.
These phenomenal leaders would have been elated to see this caring gesture extended as it is to the very people whose dreams and aspirations had been central to the noble cause for which they gave their lives. It pains me, first as a mother, then a teacher and a Minister, to see where today’s meal is being served, and where the food items for such are being kept.
This should serve to remind all of us of the challenges we face in providing quality education to all our children. Often we forget that the many challenges on our way to a people’s education for people’s power are problems not of our own making. Many forget or ignore conveniently the fact that the mud-schools we are determined to wipe-out are not a product of the ANC government. We build quality schools.
This province has felt the impact of government’s work to improve education. We have committed to replace mud and unsafe structures. And in the Eastern Cape, of the 49 schools we have promised to build by March 2013, 17 are complete. The rest are around 85% complete.
Our delays we are addressing head-on. These include capacity problems on the part of contractors. Some contractors we have had to replace. I’m saying these things also to draw the attention of Tiger Brands and other companies to the fact that much needs to be done to turn around schooling.
It’s for these reasons that we want partnerships. It’s in this context that we want all to make education an essential service. Nobody can deny there are problems. But equally it’s not helpful when some elect to ignore the triumphs we all have made to rid our country of apartheid and the homelands. Working together we can do more to improve the quality of education and build a better life for all of us.
It concerns us as citizens and as government when actions are taken consciously to jeopardise the education of the African child, more so when we’ve opened doors for discussion. It doesn’t help to break a door that is wide open. For then we will be pardoned for questioning your intentions.
Ladies and gentlemen,
As I’ve said, this occasion demonstrates bonds of partnership between us and Tiger Brands. This partnership serves to advance our constitutional mandate to promote the rights to education for all. On an empty stomach, no child can follow what the teacher says in class.
The Bill of Rights in the Constitution extends to every child the right to basic nutrition, shelter, basic health-care and social services. Our republic contends still with high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment in spite of the many interventions we have made and the positive gains of democracy.
In February 2013, Stats SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey placed the unemployment rate at 24.9%, for 4th quarter of 2012. A study by the Human Science Research Council further suggested that child poverty in South Africa – at 65.5% – remains higher than poverty among adults – at 45.2%.
Despite massive social assistance to uplift the needy through, among other things, the expansion of child support grants, poverty among children remain a factor. It’s expected therefore of all of us to do more. The democratic government has prioritised pro-poor strategies for supporting learners whose learning capacity was compromised by inadequate nutrient intake and fatigue coming from walking long distances between home and school.
Some skipped breakfast either by choice or because there was nothing to eat. It was against this background that we introduced the national School Nutrition Programme, to assist the children and to support quality learning.
The programme provides meals to deserving learners from rural, informal settlement and urban schools whose school performance may be affected by poor economic conditions. We have made tremendous progress in this programme since we’ve started. We serve nutritious cooked meals consisting of a protein, a starch and a vegetable or fruit, daily.
While learners are provided with nutritious meals, they also are taught to establish and maintain good eating and lifestyle habits through Nutrition Education. We encourage schools to establish food gardens from which they obtain fresh produce (vegetables/fruit) to supplement the school meals.
The national School Nutrition Programme has been extended to secondary school learners. In the past it was reserved for primary school learners. Currently, over 8 million learners in over 21 000 (21 467) schools benefit from the programme. Over 54 000 volunteers prepare and serve meals in schools.
But Programme Director,
I cannot emphasise, sufficiently, the importance of partnerships. The vision in the National Development Plan, of ending poverty, inequality and unemployment, will be attained to the extent that we work together to improve our schools and our country.
It is against this background, Dr Altman, that President Jacob Zuma alludes always to the national imperative to make education a societal issue. It was against this background that we established a partnership with the Tiger Brands Foundation that we formalised in 2011, through a Memorandum of Understanding.
The Tiger Brands Foundation’s breakfast programme complements very well the main meal served as part of the national School Nutrition Programme. Indeed we are glad that from only 6 schools in Alexander, you have extended the programme to cover 57 schools. Believe me, we will not complain were you to expand the programme to include even more schools.
Your breakfast programme plays a critical role in advancing our learner performance targets in the Annual National Assessments and the National Senior Certificate examinations. I would like to thank the Foundation, and Tiger Brands and its leadership and Board, for their vision.
We thank you for investing in education, an investment that is in itself a business imperative. From education, training and innovation flow requisite skills for growing both business and the economy. In this manner you therefore have contributed to South Africa’s road towards socio-economic freedom.
We value, highly, the creation of jobs for out-of-school youth – as monitors – as well as the training provided to school management teams and the use of innovative cell-phone technology to complete monitoring reports to enable up-to-date programme information.
In conclusion, I thank all principals and teachers for their hard work and commitment to improve learner performance. I call upon parents to take keen interest in their children’s school work and the school nutrition programme. Motivate learners to take care of school assets, like plates and spoons that are provided by the Department and the Foundation.
I call upon all teachers, and all learners, again to be in school, in class, on time, teaching and learning for at least 7 hours a day, on all school days.
Programme Director,
Indeed it is a great privilege to serve the 10 millionth breakfast. We look forward to the next 10 million meals!
Working together we can do more to make every child a national asset.
I thank you!
