​Gauteng Department of Social Development has given school uniform to more than 2 million vulnerable children in the last ten years, through the Gauteng Provincial Government Bana Pele programs.
The Gauteng Provincial Government embarked in the program of school uniforms to give less fortunate children a start so that they are inspired and one day become, to name a few, engineers, accountants, artisans, and technicians. Among its many uses, the uniform serves to standardise children wear in schools and concealing their economic background and class. The financial situations of some families are so dire that a decent uniform is considered a luxury.

Gauteng Government’s efforts are aimed at ensuring that the child can receive free education, from the Department of Basic Education, free health care from the Department of Health as well as scholar transport from the Department of Transport and school nutrition.

All these are made possible through the Bana Pele program, aimed at children on the support grant database as well as orphaned and vulnerable children. Each year the Gauteng Department of Social Development rolls out school distribution. This year the department will be handing out 200 000 school uniforms. Each contains a pair of shoes, a pair of socks, a pack of underwears, a vest, a jersey, a skirt, a shirt, a tunic, and a dungaree depending on the gender of the child and type.

Through this program, the government also strives to achieve the vision set out in the constitution with regard to appropriate care, and the provision of basic education.

Due to South Africa’s long history of oppression and generational repercussions, the government has a mammoth task in restoring dignity to those who find themselves in poverty.

Government does not only give them school uniforms, but also provided dignity packs that contain sanitary pads, toothpaste, body lotion, toilet roll, and bath soaps. We all know and acknowledge that adolescents come with new hygiene complications.

If these issues are not dealt with this may affect learners’ self-esteem and their progress as they will be compelled to skip school when on menstrual periods or do not have proper toiletries.

The Gauteng Department of Social Development distributes 196 796 dignity packs to 1320 throughout the province and plans to distribute 1 180 776 by end of March next year.

There sewing of school uniforms and manufacturing are done by unemployed women that had come together into cooperatives to produce the goods, thus creating employment for them. This confirms the saying that it takes a village to raise a child.

Indeed Gauteng Government continues to put the needs of children first by responding with socio-economic interventions that seek to ensure that all children are given equal learning opportunities despite their family backgrounds and fulfilling a constitutional obligation on children’s right to quality, safe and equitable education.