Parents angry over no action taken on rotten food

THE Department of Education has kept unknown the name of the supplier of food, alleged to be rotten and containing maggots, to Eziphembeleni Secondary school in Inanda. This was despite allegations that the pupils had made the discovery on three different occasions.

The parents were now fuming at the lack of action by the department.

They wanted the department to get to the bottom of these allegations that pupils were being fed rotten food containing maggots.

The department had, however, described the issue as something that was orchestrated from within the school. The department was first alerted to the allegations last month, following a video of a 5kg bag of samp – crawling with maggots – that was circulated on social media.

Eziphembeleni is one of the schools in the province that benefited from the National School Nutrition Programme.

Spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said officials were at the school on Wednesday to investigate the allegations, this time digging deeper.

He said the department had information that someone from within the school was responsible.

He said, during the visit, seven structures of the school were interviewed after which a report was sent to the head of department, with the findings and the recommendations.

However, some parents yesterday rejected this version.

They said if this was orchestrated from within the school, and was done to discredit the supplier, that would mean kitchen staff were the suspects.

They said this was unlikely, as it meant kitchen staff willingly placed themselves at risk of losing their contracts.

The parents, who spoke to the Daily News yesterday, said this week was the third time that maggots were found in food.

One of the parents said her son and daughter came home this week and did not tell her what happened, but only related the story to her after they heard about it on the news.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said her children do not take lunch to school.

She said they were a big family, with six of the children attending school.

“It’s expensive for us to have them take lunch to school. We prefer that they eat the meals provided by the school.

“Despite the fact that I cannot afford for them to take food to school, the children enjoyed the food at school until they started discovering maggots,” she said.

She said that last month her son and daughter had told her that they were served amasi (maas/sour milk) with maggots in it.

“I know that my son loves amasi and, whenever they would be served amasi, he would take sugar to school. He gets excited and does not even want to eat breakfast from home. He also enjoys bean curry,” she said.

Another parent warned that if the issue was not properly investigated, then there would be bigger consequences.

“The department is going to get into trouble if this matter is not addressed urgently.

“What will happen if our children get sick? The department needs to investigate and tell us what is exactly happening.”