HIGHVELD – Scholar transport buses resumed transporting learners to schools on Thursday, 17 January, following a scholar transport crisis in the Gert Sibande District.
The crisis left learners, mostly those from farm schools, without transport to school for almost two weeks.
Learners from Roodebank Combined School had to walk for about 30 kilometers to school and back home.
This disturbed teaching and learning as most learners could not make it to school on time.
Parents blamed the Mpumalanga Department of Education for the interruption and called on the department to establish permanent solutions for these problems.
Mr Fanyana Sibanyoni, chairman of the Mpumalanga South Africa National Taxi Council, said the problem has been resolved following the intervention of Ms Refilwe Mtsweni, premier of Mpumalanga.
He said he had met with Ms Mtsweni on Wednesday, 16 January and the meeting yielded positive results.
“We resumed taking learners to school on Thursday.
“We apologise for any inconvenience the transportation disruption has caused.
“However this was not our fault because it is the department of education that did not renew the scholar transport contracts.
“We will have a meeting with all the contractors in the Gert Sibande District to give them a proper update.
The premier committed that we will receive our five-year contract by 1 February.”
The parents of Roodebank Combined School said they were happy that the matter has been resolved though they are not fully convinced that it will not happen again.
Also read:
https://www.citizen.co.za/ridge-times/130765/learners-walk-30km-attend-first-day-school/
