R150 Million Unused While Learners Go Hungry

South Africa’s schooling crisis just got worse. Seven provincial education departments left R150 million unspent money meant to feed children, build classrooms and improve maths and science education. The Department of Basic Education’s latest annual report paints a bleak picture, with Limpopo topping the list, failing to use nearly R70 million in grants. That includes over R33 million for the school nutrition programme - in a country where learners are going hungry. With more than 31,000 teaching posts still vacant and overcrowded classrooms the norm, the failure to use these funds has sparked outrage. This story puts the spotlight on a broken system, where money meant to change lives is left sitting in government coffers. Phemelo speaks to Equal Education Researcher, Sam Beynon.