WESTERN CAPE NEWS - Premier Alan Winde today labelled criticism of the Western Cape Government’s feeding schemes at schools as "political opportunism".

In a statement released just after 16:00 this afternoon, Winde said attempts to politicise humanitarian relief for children are shameful. 

“On Thursday, the Western Cape Government started the roll out of an emergency feeding scheme at schools, aimed at ensuring that children who relied on the school feeding scheme during term time, would be given a meal during this time.” 

He said communities are struggling and people are already going hungry. “Over the past few days, we have fielded in excess of 10 000 calls through our various contact centres, from people desperate for food aid.

“The fact that nearly 100 000 children arrived on the first day of feeding is testament to the massive and growing need for nutritional support and intervention. For many of these children, it is the only meal they will receive each day.”

He slammed those who have been calling on the Western Cape Government to stop the school feeding scheme. “It is mind boggling and quite frankly shameful that opposition parties, teacher unions and Cosatu in the province are calling for us to end this important humanitarian effort.

“The feeding scheme at schools is being conducted with strict adult supervision, social distancing and hygiene protocols in place. Children bring their own container to collect their food if possible, and do not stay on the school premises to eat. We are also working closely with SAPS in the province to ensure that areas where feeding occurs, are patrolled.

“The regulations allow for people to go out to buy food – it simply makes no sense to exclude hungry children from this basic human right.”

The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) and the politicaI party, Icosa have criticised the feeding scheme at schools as they feared it would aid the spread of the virus. Icosa national spokesperson Dawid Kamfer has requested an investigation into the scheme and said he is awaiting feedback from the police. He said food should rather be delivered to individual homes.

Premier Winde said regulations allow government to continue operating the various soup kitchens and feeding initiatives run by the Department of Social Development. “The Department of Education in the province has stepped up to assist as the Department of Social Development does not have the capacity to deal with the increased need. The Department of Social Development will be working right throughout the long weekend to deliver food to the vulnerable, further highlighting the need for the Department of Education to continue feeding.”

Winde said the systems to feed children at schools were already in place, and have allowed Province to respond quickly. “The matter was deliberated extensively by the full cabinet, including measures on how to ensure that it was conducted safely, before the decision to go ahead with the feeding scheme was taken. We all agreed that we cannot allow our children's nutritional needs to go unmet.”

He stressed that the coronavirus does not just require a medical response, but also a humanitarian one. 

“As we head into an additional two weeks of lockdown, the need will only become greater. The emergency feeding scheme at schools is one of the ways we as the Western Cape Government are working to address this. We call on those criticizing the response to rather work with us to address the most pressing needs of our communities and citizens, and stop playing politics at this challenging time for our province and country.

“This pandemic shows us just how vulnerable so many of our communities are. We must do everything possible to help them during this time. It also shows us that in addition to addressing coronavirus now, we must put equal effort into addressing measures to grow employment numbers and improve the standards of living across the country.”

The latest Covid-19 confirmed cases in the province as recorded just after midnight today, stands at 567 with 29 Covid-19 positive people in hospital. Twelve of these are being treated in high care units.

Yesterday the department said the number of confirmed cases in George are 13 and not 14 as previously announced. At 18, Mossel Bay has the most recorded cases in the Garden Route with George and Knysna still at 13 each. These towns are followed by the Bitou and Hessequa municipal districts with 5 cases each and Oudtshoorn with 2 recorded cases. This brings the total cases in the Garden Route to 56. 

The Western Cape does however also have 4 confirmed cases that have not been allocated to a specific region.

Winde said the Western Cape is seeing increasing numbers of local transmissions. 

“We are acting quickly to ensure that where they do occur, we are able to locate and quarantine contacts to stop further spread. Our community testing efforts will also help us in this regard. We however appeal to people to abide by the rules of the lockdown, and to keep up with regular handwashing and distancing measures to help us in these efforts."

'We bring you the latest Garden Route, Karoo, Hessequa news'