School hostel food scare

NAMIBIAN children staying in Government-run school hostels are being systematically cheated out of a balanced diet by the contractors supplying their food, The Namibian has established.This situation could, in some cases, have a serious long-term effect on their health.

The three-year catering contract, worth N$320 million in 2003, for most of Namibia’s State-run school hostels is held by Independence Caterers, Welwitschia Rural Caterers and Meal Management Services – all members of the Catering Association of Namibia (CAN). Confidential company documents obtained by The Namibian warned that the meat products such as mince and sausage supplied to most of Namibia’s hostels contained dangerously high levels of sodium (salt) that could, in later life, cause kidney failure and osteoporosis (weakening of the bone structure).NUTRITIONIST WARNED In a memorandum dated November 22 2005 and addressed to the directors of CAN, the company’s chief nutritionist Ida Erasmus warned that the meat products supplied by CAN’s Otjiwarongo meat-processing plant contained as much as five teaspoons of salt per 100g of meat.”It should be remembered that sodium and calcium share a transport system in the kidney and filtered sodium is accompanied by calcium in the human body,” Erasmus wrote.”This increases the hazardous risk of bone density and osteoporosis in later stages of the human lifecycle.””This is a potential health and safety hazard,” Erasmus wrote in a report to CAN’s directors.The current directors of CAN are Boniface Paulino, Ed Davies, Mrs E.Gideon, Mike Tjaveondja, Reverend Frans Goagoseb and Sackey Aipinge.The Catering Association of Namibia, a private company that “oversees industry standards” according to its manager Ian Kemp, consists of seven seemingly independent catering companies but effectively functions as a single entity.SAME COMPANY USED All companies involved were registered with the same accountants (Windhoek Mechanized Accounting), secretarial services (Regal Secretarial Services) and auditors (Fehrsen Harms and Associates), and all list the 1st Floor, Sokolic Building on the corner of John Meinert and Werner List streets as their registered address.A three-month investigation into CAN member practices showed that all seven companies use the same procurement company, Northern Procurement Agency cc.for most of their bulk purchases, including meat.Vegetables and fruit, which are supposed to be supplied by local producers (headed up by one Staal Burger of the J&B Group of Companies) is also channelled through Northern Procurement Agency (NPA).Independent tests commissioned by The Namibian on samples of NPA’s mince and sausage showed similar results to those cited by Erasmus, largely due to a seaweed-derived emulsifier and thickener known as sodium and calcium alginate that the meat factory adds to its products.MILK BELOW STANDARD Similar tests done on milk powder supplied by CAN and its members to school hostels also showed that CAN’s milk powder falls well short of the requirements set by the Ministry of Education.Comparing CAN’s milk powder specifications with what Independence Caterers is contractually obliged to supply, an independent laboratory concluded that it amounted to neither full-cream nor skimmed milk.”(The) milk powder does not comply with the specifications as set out (in Independence Caterers’ contract),” their report said.The Namibian is in possession of a copy of the contract.Hostel staff said they had to mix the milk powder – which hardens into a rock-like substance when left for too long – in equal amounts with sugar to make it palatable for the children.Chief Hostel Inspector Alida Botha, in an addendum to the contract, noted that the “anti-caking agent should most probably be increased.”The three-year tender (Tender A9-15-2003) to supply all the Ministry’s hostels is currently held by three members of CAN – Independence Caterers, Meal Management and Welwitschia Rural Caterers.The contract, which has been renewed, was worth N$320 million a year in 2003, but this has subsequently been dramatically increased, industry sources said.A fourth non-CAN company, Top Trading CC, currently holds the Caprivi contract, but also works closely with CAN in terms of bulk procurement, industry sources and former employees said.The Namibian’s investigation showed that CAN’s seven members effectively dominate the entire catering industry, State and private, with a few smaller contracts awarded to their competitors.While the Ministry of Education contract stipulates that no single company may hold more than two regions under tender, this rule appeared to have been circumvented by dividing Namibia into only four geographical regions, as opposed to the 13 political regions.For example, Independence Caterers, which holds the Central area, supplies 68 hostels in total, including those of the Khomas, Erongo and Otjozondjupa regions.EXCESSIVE PROFITEERING Former employees of CAN member companies told The Namibian that the CAN members typically would tender at cost for catering contracts, and then make a profit by cutting back as much as possible on what they actually supplied.”Area managers are told that the bosses want to see 30 per cent profit, but anything above that is for them (the managers) to keep,” one such employee said.The biggest cost in catering is natural protein products – meat and milk – which was where hostels were being short-changed most, this source said.The use of seaweed-derived sodium alginate, which can absorb up to 14 times its dry weight in fluids, was a typical method of inflating profits, he pointed out.”Five kilos of mince can become more than double that if ‘doctored’ in this way,” another source familiar with the Otjiwarongo and Outjo-based processing plants said.Other copies of company documents showed that a South African meat expert, Professor FD Mellet, who had tested NPA’s meat products and its “meat-replacement powder” (sodium alginate), concluded that CAN’s meat and chicken “does not qualify as a meat product.”Similar tests commissioned by The Namibian showed the same results.PARENTS PAYING At the same time, parents of children staying in hostels are asked to contribute financially to buy better food for their children.A copy of Independence Caterers’ contract stipulates, for example, that children are supposed to get cheese and oshikuku (fermented milk), but none of the children interviewed late last year at four rural hostels ever got any, they said.At the same time, Independence Caterers also holds one of the sub-contacts to supply Namibia’s hospitals with food, where its sodium alginate-laced products could have an even more devastating effect on especially recuperating young patients and young mothers, another nutritionist has warned.”Children who, for example, have with kidney problems will actually be worse off after they have been to hospital,” the nutritionist said, asking for anonymity because of the political dimensions of this scandal.”All meat and other protein products should be tested every week, on a random basis, to make sure the caterers do not cheat.”Chief School Hostel Inspector Alida Botha, who also sits on the Tender Board, could not be reached for comment as she was still on holiday in Cape Town.Similarly, the Ministry of Health and Social Services’ Cliffie Platt, who oversees his Ministry’s tender administration and related services, was also not immediately available for comment.* John Grobler is a freelance journalist; 081 240 1587Confidential company documents obtained by The Namibian warned that the meat products such as mince and sausage supplied to most of Namibia’s hostels contained dangerously high levels of sodium (salt) that could, in later life, cause kidney failure and osteoporosis (weakening of the bone structure).NUTRITIONIST WARNED In a memorandum dated November 22 2005 and addressed to the directors of CAN, the company’s chief nutritionist Ida Erasmus warned that the meat products supplied by CAN’s Otjiwarongo meat-processing plant contained as much as five teaspoons of salt per 100g of meat.”It should be remembered that sodium and calcium share a transport system in the kidney and filtered sodium is accompanied by calcium in the human body,” Erasmus wrote.”This increases the hazardous risk of bone density and osteoporosis in later stages of the human lifecycle.””This is a potential health and safety hazard,” Erasmus wrote in a report to CAN’s directors.The current directors of CAN are Boniface Paulino, Ed Davies, Mrs E.Gideon, Mike Tjaveondja, Reverend Frans Goagoseb and Sackey Aipinge. The Catering Association of Namibia, a private company that “oversees industry standards” according to its manager Ian Kemp, consists of seven seemingly independent catering companies but effectively functions as a single entity.SAME COMPANY USED All companies involved were registered with the same accountants (Windhoek Mechanized Accounting), secretarial services (Regal Secretarial Services) and auditors (Fehrsen Harms and Associates), and all list the 1st Floor, Sokolic Building on the corner of John Meinert and Werner List streets as their registered address. A three-month investigation into CAN member practices showed that all seven companies use the same procurement company, Northern Procurement Agency cc.for most of their bulk purchases, including meat.Vegetables and fruit, which are supposed to be supplied by local producers (headed up by one Staal Burger of the J&B Group of Companies) is also channelled through Northern Procurement Agency (NPA).Independent tests commissioned by The Namibian on samples of NPA’s mince and sausage showed similar results to those cited by Erasmus, largely due to a seaweed-derived emulsifier and thickener known as sodium and calcium alginate that the meat factory adds to its products. MILK BELOW STANDARD Similar tests done on milk powder supplied by CAN and its members to school hostels also showed that CAN’s milk powder falls well short of the requirements set by the Ministry of Education.Comparing CAN’s milk powder specifications with what Independence Caterers is contractually obliged to supply, an independent laboratory concluded that it amounted to neither full-cream nor skimmed milk.”(The) milk powder does not comply with the specifications as set out (in Independence Caterers’ contract),” their report said.The Namibian is in possession of a copy of the contract.Hostel staff said they had to mix the milk powder – which hardens into a rock-like substance when left for too long – in equal amounts with sugar to make it palatable for the children.Chief Hostel Inspector Alida Botha, in an addendum to the contract, noted that the “anti-caking agent should most probably be increased.”The three-year tender (Tender A9-15-2003) to supply all the Ministry’s hostels is currently held by three members of CAN – Independence Caterers, Meal Management and Welwitschia Rural Caterers.The contract, which has been renewed, was worth N$320 million a year in 2003, but this has subsequently been dramatically increased, industry sources said.A fourth non-CAN company, Top Trading CC, currently holds the Caprivi contract, but also works closely with CAN in terms of bulk procurement, industry sources and former employees said.The Namibian’s investigation showed that CAN’s seven members effectively dominate the entire catering industry, State and private, with a few smaller contracts awarded to their competitors.While the Ministry of Education contract stipulates that no single company may hold more than two regions under tender, this rule appeared to have been circumvented by dividing Namibia into only four geographical regions, as opposed to the 13 political regions.For example, Independence Caterers, which holds the Central area, supplies 68 hostels in total, including those of the Khomas, Erongo and Otjozondjupa regions.EXCESSIVE PROFITEERING Former employees of CAN member companies told The Namibian that the CAN members typically would tender at cost for catering contracts, and then make a profit by cutting back as much as possible on what they actually supplied.”Area managers are told that the bosses want to see 30 per cent profit, but anything above that is for them (the managers) to keep,” one such employee said.The biggest cost in catering is natural protein products – meat and milk – which was where hostels were being short-changed most, this source said.The use of seaweed-derived sodium alginate, which can absorb up to 14 times its dry weight in fluids, was a typical method of inflating profits, he pointed out.”Five kilos of mince can become more than double that if ‘doctored’ in this way,” another source familiar with the Otjiwarongo and Outjo-based processing plants said.Other copies of company documents showed that a South African meat expert, Professor FD Mellet, who had tested NPA’s meat products and its “meat-replacement powder” (sodium alginate), concluded that CAN’s meat and chicken “does not qualify as a meat product.”Similar tests commissioned by The Namibian showed the same results.PARENTS PAYING At the same time, parents of children staying in hostels are asked to contribute financially to buy better food for their children.A copy of Independence Caterers’ contract stipulates, for example, that children are supposed to get cheese and oshikuku (fermented milk), but none of the children interviewed late last year at four rural hostels ever got any, they said.At the same time, Independence Caterers also holds one of the sub-contacts to supply Namibia’s hospitals with food, where its sodium alginate-laced products could have an even more devastating effect on especially recuperating young patients and young mothers, another nutritionist has warned.”Children who, for example, have with kidney problems will actually be worse off after they have been to hospital,” the nutritionist said, asking for anonymity because of the political dimensions of this scandal.”All meat and other protein products should be tested every week, on a random basis, to make sure the caterers do not cheat.”Chief School Hostel Inspector Alida Botha, who also sits on the Tender Board, could not be reached for comment as she was still on holiday in Cape Town.Similarly, the Ministry of Health and Social Services’ Cliffie Platt, who oversees his Ministry’s tender administration and related services, was also not immediately available for comment.* John Grobler is a freelance journalist; 081 240 1587