Several complaints from the community have led to an oversight visit by members of the North West legislature on Thursday (24/10).

The visit was conducted by the provincial legislature’s committee on community safety and transport management’s chairperson, Freddy Sonakile, and education committee chairperson, Priscilla Williams, to account for the state of scholar transport in the province.

Some buses were missing chairs. Photo supplied

“The departments’ failure to provide scholar transport to learners in need is a deprivation of their right to education and must never be tolerated,” said Sonakile.

“When we inspected the buses we noticed that most of them weren’t roadworthy, which is worrying because they transport children to school. Some were missing chairs, others you could see the tar whilst the bus was moving.”

Most buses weren’t roadworthy. Photo supplied

The biggest problem noted was overloading because the vehicle might experience mechanical issues which would place the lives of children in danger, he said.

The department of education was urged to urgently locate the 9,045 learners who are not part of the scholar transport, and the study must include the affected schools, identify whether these students are still attending, and whether they have dropped out, and assess the full impact that the unavailability of scholar transport has had on them.

“A detailed report must be done on 21 learners of a primary school who last attended school in March 2023 due to a lack of scholar transport, after the previous service provider’s contract expired.”

The committee made joint recommendations that the department should conduct unannounced roadworthy tests for all scholar transport service providers between now and December, throughout the province. A full investigation should also be launched into the possibility that some service providers fraudulently passed the verification process.

Unannounced roadworthy tests for all scholar transport service providers will be conducted. Photo supplied

Unpaid service providers were also an issue that was brought up during the visit. “A session with all unpaid service providers must be held within two weeks, and all outstanding payments must be fast-tracked where services have been rendered,“ said Sonakile. “An electronic monitoring system must be in place and operational by January 2025.”

OFM News/Zenande Mpame cg