By Johannah Malogadihlare
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has hit out at criticism over branded desks donated by the private sector to two Cape Town schools.
The donation, which has been referred to as a branding stunt, was made by McDonald’s South Africa and MiDesk in partnership with the Basic Education Department to address challenges of school infrastructure.
Gwarube said children would benefit from the wheelie school bag that unfolded into a desk and chair. The desks also have a USB port.
“Firstly, these desks have been approved by Unesco. They are 2kg heavy and Unesco has indicated that these are absolutely appropriate, but what is important for me is that there are children in this country who go places and homes where they don’t have even an area to do their homework,” said Gwarube.
The children had been writing on their laps before the donations.
Although 22 civil society organisations including Section27, Equal Education and the SA Council of Churches, criticised the minister for welcoming the donation, education activist Hendrick Makaneta said there was nothing wrong with private sectors providing assisting underprivileged schools.
“The fact that we still have learners who study without desks, and the fact that this was a donation… if a donation is going to address a need, it should be welcomed in my view,” Makaneta told Newzroom Afrika.
However, the organisations said McDonald’s donation was junk food marketing targeting vulnerable children while the country was facing malnutrition crisis.
They said the education department should have protected children’s health instead of exposing them to marketing fast foods.
They have also accused McDonald’s of using children as unpaid walking billboards for the junk food market and by slapping its logo on the MiDesk, it ensured that its brand was paraded through communities, at no cost, while profiting from the very eating habits that harmed children’s health.
“Minister Gwarube’s decisions cannot be a compromise between private interests and protecting our children from harmful advertising. Her responsibility is to serve the public and the Constitution, which means keeping private interests in check and ensuring big businesses don’t profit at the expense of our children,” Amandla.mobi’s Palesa Ramoleo,
“The DBE should be intensifying its efforts to enhance the school nutrition programme, not helping to further socialise young children into the consumption of health-devastating foods. These foods jeopardise the physical, mental and emotional performance of children, and thereby their futures,” Healthy Living Alliance’s Zukiswa Zimela said.
The organisations said the branded desks were the result of austerity measures and budget cuts in the country.
They also said corporate actors were turning classrooms into advertising spaces and called on the minister to withdraw support for the branded MiDesk donation.
They urged the government to urgently finalise the draft regulations on the labelling and advertising of foodstuffs and to strengthen regulations around corporate social investments to ensure that they were ethical, transparent, and not transactional.
INSIDE EDUCATION
