The North West Legislature Portfolio Committee on Community Safety and Transport Management led by Hon Freddy Sonakile wants action taken to address the scholar transport woes in the province.  The Committee has given the department 48 hours to provide a comprehensive report on the action taken against non compliant scholar transport service providers in the province.

This was during an oversight meeting that the Committee held with the Department of Community Safety and Transport Management over their 1st quarterly performance report.

The Chairperson referred to amongst others a case of the Maswelanyane Secondary School, wherein 4 service providers were issued tenders to provide scholar transport for the school. The service providers had to provide for 7 buses, but only provides 4 buses which are not in good conditions.  One provider also uses a 22 seater to load close to 40 learners.

Of the 4 service providers, one has not even once reported for duty since introduced to the school.  This has led to numerous challenges including children being late for school, overloading in the transports and blunt exposure of children to danger.

The Committee also related to the story that happened just last month, where a learner from Lehurutshe died after being forced to jump out of a moving scholar transport bus as result of a driver who was allegedly intoxicated while transporting scholars.  “It cannot be business as usual while lives of children are placed in danger.  We are not getting a sense of proper oversight by the department on the buses it has contracted to deliver this service. The Maselwanyane case must serve as an example where the department will show no mercy to service providers who are in breach of their contractual obligations and their contracts must be cancelled.” said Hon Sonakile

The committee also requested amongst others a list of all schools in the province  that are provided with scholar transport service funded by the department in order to perform its own unannounced monitoring visits.  The Committee urges parents and all stakeholders to report non-compliant service providers to the Committee and the Department.

For more information or to arrange interviews with the Chairperson contact Namhla Luhabe on 0795270628.