JOHANNESBURG SOUTH – The National Freedom Party President, Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi has called for the expansion of the scope of the School Governing Bodies (SGB) to include the task of looking at scholar-transport.
She made the call after seven pupils were killed and several others injured in Pietermaritzburg’s Embali Township, when a bakkie transporting school children crashed into a house on Wednesday.
Today (Thursday) twenty-two school children were seriously injured after a minibus taxi crashed into the back of a bus in Umlazi, south of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal.
“These incidents calls for drastic measures to be taken and to be taken fast,” KaMagwaza-Msibi said. “I think we do not need to convene conferences and discuss this matter. Meetings have been called in the past and they have failed to yield any results.
“I think what we need to do now is to expand the work of SGB’s to include among others, the task of looking into scholar-transport. We need to make it their responsibilities to appoint those who will transport our children to schools,” said KaMagwaza-Msibi.
The NFP leader, who is recovering well at home following her hospitalization last year, said that members of SGB’s are responsible for day-to-day running of the school and they incorporate parents, teachers and learners and therefore are best suitable deal with all matters, including the issue of scholar-transport.
“Government has said it over and over that vehicles transporting children to schools should be roadworthy and not overloaded and it seems this is falling on deaf ears. It is for this reason that I make this call that members of SGB’s should take charge in this regard,” said KaMagwaza-Msibi.
