• Pacina Retail, the company contracted by the KZN Education Department to supply the National Schools Feeding programme says it has not pulled out of the tender.
• The company maintains that the Department of Education is still bound by the contract.
• The education department released a circular earlier this week saying it was reverting to the old format following the withdrawal of Pacina's tender.

Pacina Retail, the company that has been contracted by the KwaZulu-Natal Education Department as the main supplier of the province's national schools nutrition programme claims it has not received any payment for the R2.1 billion tender.

In a statement, Pacina Retail claimed the tender still belongs to them despite unfounded rumours and false claims.

"Pacina are aware of the current discontent regarding the status of the National School Nutrition Programme in KwaZulu-Natal. Pacina would like to set the record straight regarding recent unfounded rumours and misleading allegations of the collapse of the programme," the statement read.

Throwing the proverbial spanner in the works, the company said: "We have not received a single payment [in any amount] from the Department, in fact we have had to self-fund the programme from inception to date."

It added that it had not pulled out of the tender as claimed and stressed that the tender is still binding and in force.

The statement comes as the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education earlier this week issued a circular saying it was...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMilAFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzMjQuY29tL25l...