The Department to challenge the court order regarding NSNP
The Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal has, this morning, had its attention drawn to an interim court order, seemingly interdicting it from proceeding with awarding new service providers for the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP). This interim order was obtained without giving notice to the Department, despite a previous attempt at seeking the same order being made, when notice was given to the Department, on 18 July 2017.
This interim court order purports to maintain the status quo in relation to the service providers who were providing food to schools in terms of the NSNP, as 24 July 2017. No such status quo existed as at 24 July 2017, as the previous service providers all had their contracts with the Department terminated in June 2017. It would also appear that the interim order interdicts the entire tender process, notwithstanding that only a handful of bids have been taken on appeal by the Applicants concerned. This, the Department contends, will result in thousands of school children going without their daily allocation of food in terms of the NSNP, and in fact is counter to the argument of the unsuccessful bidders who have obtained the interim court order.
In this regard, the Department intends on challenging the interim order, as soon as it can be heard by the High Court, Pietermaritzburg.
