Cape Town – There are no plans to roll out free sanitary pads for schoolgirls in the Western Cape, the provincial education department has confirmed.
This comes after the KwaZulu-Natal Education Department said it was testing a pilot project where they would make sanitary pads freely available in schools there.
The Western Cape Education Department have said that due to budgetary constraints, they were unable to provide sanitary towels in schools.
Department of Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said while the programme in KwaZulu-Natal was a pilot, they hoped to roll it out in all regions.
“All MECs of education have agreed that it is an important intervention aimed at helping our learners. It will be rolled out in all provinces, but provincial education departments are at various stages of readiness. KZN has gone first because they were ready to implement.”
However, WCED spokesperson Jessica Shelver said while government had made plans, the department was yet to see this implemented at a provincial level.
“Pressure is mounting on the government to provide free sanitary products to women and girls from poor communities – in fact this was a promise made by President Jacob Zuma in his 2011 State of the Nation address."
“The promise has never materialised and at a provincial level we have not received any additional funding from national government to provide for this."
“Fortunately, in the lack of sanitary pads has not been reported or raised as a serious concern in Western Cape schools. We are grateful for the support of many NGO and corporate sponsors who donate panties and sanitary towels to some of our schools in need."
“In the Western Cape, we contacted the DBE national co-ordinator for HIV and TB Conditional Grants and we enquired whether the conditional grant could be used to provide girls in quintile 1 & 2 schools (poorest of the poor) with dignity packs. The answer that we received was that the grant could not be used for this purpose.”
Shelver said the WCED was exploring partnerships with NGOs to ensure no female pupil had to miss school because of not having sanitary pads.
There have been growing calls for government to provide free sanitary pads for schoolgirls as they are already providing free condoms in schools for boys.
It’s been reported that girls miss three to five days of school a month because they do not have sanitary pads.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan commended the KwaZulu-Natal Education Department in his Budget speech on Wednesday, and said he hoped this was only the start.
“Allow me to commend the work of the inter-departmental task team led by the Department of Women that is co-ordinating government’s support for the provision of sanitary pads to indigent women, including learners and students,” Gordhan said.
“The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education is piloting the rollout of sanitary pads at schools, and I hope we will see complementary initiatives in other provinces.”