Thousands of underprivileged Gauteng learners are deprived of access to much-needed school uniforms due to the Gauteng Department of Social Development’s (DSD) failure to place uniform orders with Gauteng Cooperatives on time. Some of these cooperatives received uniform orders as late as 9 December 2024.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) finds the actions of the DSD to be extremely unjust towards the cooperatives. By the time these cooperatives received their orders, schools had already closed. As a result, they did not have the opportunity to measure the learners for their clothing and prepare the uniforms before the reopening of schools.
The delivery deadline is the end of February, which is tight and could compromise the quality of service delivery.
While this is disappointing, it is not shocking because, during last year’s Social Development Portfolio Committee meeting with cooperatives, they revealed that department officials often instruct cooperatives to purchase uniforms from retailers when timelines are tight.
The DA Gauteng demands that the MEC for Social Development, Faith Mazibuko, implement urgent measures that ensure cooperatives receive purchase orders by September each year. This will allow sufficient time to take measurements and deliver high-quality uniforms.
A DA Gauteng provincial government will commit itself to ensuring proper planning for cooperatives. This initiative will guarantee that cooperatives receive uniform orders on time, allowing them to measure learners before the school year ends and complete their orders on time. The DA would also issue purchase orders so that cooperatives can get bank loans when needed instead and be protected from loan sharks.