Demand for better meals at public hospitals and schools like in prisons.
Demand for better meals at public hospitals and schools like in prisons.
The Issue
A public petition to compel the ANC government to provide patients in public hospitals and learners in schools with food that is equal to or better than the nutrition provided to convicted prisoners. I'm making a call on all residents of Mpumalanga and all right-thinking South Africans to sign the petition and add their voices to this urgent demand for dignity and justice.
The petition will highlight a grotesque inequality: while the Department of Correctional Services ensures that inmates receive nutritionally balanced meals three times a day at a cost of between R800 and R1,000 per prisoner per month patients in Mpumalanga’s public hospitals are going without food, and school children are being poisoned by the very meals meant to nourish them.
“It is a national disgrace that the ANC government prioritises the nutritional needs of convicted criminals above those of sick patients fighting for their lives and vulnerable children striving for a better future". “If the state can afford to feed prisoners according to constitutionally protected nutritional standards, it can and must do the same or better for the people of Mpumalanga.”
Patients at public hospitals across Mpumalanga have been abandoned without meals for days. At Themba Hospital in Kabokweni, patients were left without meals, clean gowns, or bedding. At Witbank General Hospital in eMalahleni, patients have reported unhygienic and alarming conditions, including being denied proper nutrition. Patients have explicitly stated that “prisoners are getting better treatment than patients at Mpumalanga public health facilities”.
Rob Ferreira Hospital in Mbombela has been described as a “crumbling mess,” with no hot water for four years, chronic shortages of beds, linen, and staff, and patients forced to sleep on floors, stretchers, and even wheelchairs. Mapulaneng Hospital has been deemed unsafe by Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health, with warnings of structural collapse risks, staff shortages, water crises, and failing services.
The National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP), allocated R10.3 billion nationally for 2025/26, is failing the children it is meant to serve. In July 2025, more than 30 children from MP Mokoena Primary School in Marite, Bushbuckridge, were treated for food poisoning after eating oranges from the school kitchen. In Mpumalanga, over 50 food poisoning incidents involving school learners were reported. At Nelson Ngubeni Primary School, two learners died after falling ill with symptoms similar to food poisoning.
The ANC government ensures that prisoners receive pork, beans, eggs, beef, chicken, fish, and giblets as part of a 12-day cycle meal plan designed by nutrition experts, our schoolchildren are being served food that makes them sick and in some cases, kills them.”
What the Petition Demands
1. Compelling the Mpumalanga Department of Health to ensure that all public hospitals provide patients with meals that are at least equal in nutritional quality and quantity to the meals provided to prisoners, including three balanced meals per day with adequate protein, carbohydrates, fruits, and vegetables.
2. Compelling the Mpumalanga Department of Education to ensure that the National School Nutrition Programme provides learners with meals that meet or exceed the nutritional standards set for prisoners, including the minimum caloric and protein requirements prescribed by law.
3. Increasing the per-patient and per-learner daily food budget in public hospitals and schools to at least match the per-inmate daily food budget of the Department of Correctional Services.
4. Establishing an independent oversight committee to monitor and report quarterly on the quality and nutritional value of food served in public hospitals and schools across Mpumalanga.
5. Investigating all food poisoning incidents in Mpumalanga schools and hospitals and holding those responsible accountable.
6. Ensuring that no patient or learner in Mpumalanga goes without adequate nutrition while the government continues to provide three nutritionally balanced meals per day to convicted prisoners.
7. Cancel all meals for politicians in any government gathering including meetings, let them buy their own food.
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The Issue
A public petition to compel the ANC government to provide patients in public hospitals and learners in schools with food that is equal to or better than the nutrition provided to convicted prisoners. I'm making a call on all residents of Mpumalanga and all right-thinking South Africans to sign the petition and add their voices to this urgent demand for dignity and justice.
The petition will highlight a grotesque inequality: while the Department of Correctional Services ensures that inmates receive nutritionally balanced meals three times a day at a cost of between R800 and R1,000 per prisoner per month patients in Mpumalanga’s public hospitals are going without food, and school children are being poisoned by the very meals meant to nourish them.
“It is a national disgrace that the ANC government prioritises the nutritional needs of convicted criminals above those of sick patients fighting for their lives and vulnerable children striving for a better future". “If the state can afford to feed prisoners according to constitutionally protected nutritional standards, it can and must do the same or better for the people of Mpumalanga.”
Patients at public hospitals across Mpumalanga have been abandoned without meals for days. At Themba Hospital in Kabokweni, patients were left without meals, clean gowns, or bedding. At Witbank General Hospital in eMalahleni, patients have reported unhygienic and alarming conditions, including being denied proper nutrition. Patients have explicitly stated that “prisoners are getting better treatment than patients at Mpumalanga public health facilities”.
Rob Ferreira Hospital in Mbombela has been described as a “crumbling mess,” with no hot water for four years, chronic shortages of beds, linen, and staff, and patients forced to sleep on floors, stretchers, and even wheelchairs. Mapulaneng Hospital has been deemed unsafe by Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health, with warnings of structural collapse risks, staff shortages, water crises, and failing services.
The National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP), allocated R10.3 billion nationally for 2025/26, is failing the children it is meant to serve. In July 2025, more than 30 children from MP Mokoena Primary School in Marite, Bushbuckridge, were treated for food poisoning after eating oranges from the school kitchen. In Mpumalanga, over 50 food poisoning incidents involving school learners were reported. At Nelson Ngubeni Primary School, two learners died after falling ill with symptoms similar to food poisoning.
The ANC government ensures that prisoners receive pork, beans, eggs, beef, chicken, fish, and giblets as part of a 12-day cycle meal plan designed by nutrition experts, our schoolchildren are being served food that makes them sick and in some cases, kills them.”
What the Petition Demands
1. Compelling the Mpumalanga Department of Health to ensure that all public hospitals provide patients with meals that are at least equal in nutritional quality and quantity to the meals provided to prisoners, including three balanced meals per day with adequate protein, carbohydrates, fruits, and vegetables.
2. Compelling the Mpumalanga Department of Education to ensure that the National School Nutrition Programme provides learners with meals that meet or exceed the nutritional standards set for prisoners, including the minimum caloric and protein requirements prescribed by law.
3. Increasing the per-patient and per-learner daily food budget in public hospitals and schools to at least match the per-inmate daily food budget of the Department of Correctional Services.
4. Establishing an independent oversight committee to monitor and report quarterly on the quality and nutritional value of food served in public hospitals and schools across Mpumalanga.
5. Investigating all food poisoning incidents in Mpumalanga schools and hospitals and holding those responsible accountable.
6. Ensuring that no patient or learner in Mpumalanga goes without adequate nutrition while the government continues to provide three nutritionally balanced meals per day to convicted prisoners.
7. Cancel all meals for politicians in any government gathering including meetings, let them buy their own food.
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Petition created on 22 July 2026