Caterers in Ghana’s School Feeding Programme, based in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, claim they will lose their jobs if the National Democratic Congress (NDC) wins the 2024 elections.
Speaking in an interview as reported by Graphic Online, caterer Dorothy Ofori-Sarpong claimed that all caterers in the region are members of the current governing party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
She said that it is a known fact that current caterers must be NPP members and called for arrears owed to them to be paid, adding that caterers have sacrificed for a long time, and it is time for the government to pay attention to their plight.
The caterers are urging the government to pay their arrears and increase the amount.
However, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, has justified his response to the caterers, stating that they did not follow due process and protested at the Regional Coordinating Council without security clearance.
“I was in a meeting yesterday when I heard some noise outside the office, and so I sent my special assistant to find out, and he came and told me it was caterers protesting outside. They did not even seek security clearance before demonstrating, so you can imagine what would have happened if the security personnel at the Regional Coordinating Council had reacted to them,” he said.
“We must be truthful to ourselves in this country and stop pampering people because the impunity is too much. Though I sympathise with the caterers, we should not allow people to break the law in their attempt to have their problems solved. We should solve our problems through legal means. You can’t just take the law into your hands and do what you want because I will not tolerate that.”
The caterers are calling on the government to solve their problems through legal means.
