Parents of children at Imbalenhle Primary School said that school buses are no longer coming to fetch them. They also claimed that for past two weeks before school closed on March 28, the children were left without transport on rainy days.
“Before that one of the buses which came was stuck in the mud on the road, so the children had no transport. To make matters worse it was during exam times. The buses did not come on following days and bus owner Mr Joseph Shabangu claimed that his buses were out of diesel,” allege the parents.
The parents further said the principal of the school tried his best to fix the problem but it is beyond his control and they believe that the Department of Education should address the situation.
The parents contacted Mr Jasper Zwane, Mpumalanga Department of Education spokesperson, and he is aware of the problem.
The parents also alleged that Shabangu does not answer his phone when contacted, and he does not attend school meetings when invited. The parents believe that Shabangu was given enough chance to improve the service for the past three years but has not done so.
“What we want now is for the department to terminate his contract. They must give the contract to another bus owner,” added the parents.
The parents said they do not want Shabangu transporting their children to school as he has failed them. They said they are concerned about the safety of their children as some of them had to walk to school along the dangerous and busy Kendal/Balmoral road.
One of the parents, Mr Bheki Sindane, said they have encountered enough problems and the department is not helping them.
“The safety and welfare of children is at stake here, their future lies in education,” said Sindane.
The policy of the Department of Education stipulates that its objective is to provide scholar transport services to learners who have to walk five or more kilometres to the nearest school. The policy must also ensure that transport acts as one of the key catalysts for education through access to schools, to ensure the provision and maintenance of safe and secure scholar transport service to ensure the procurement and formalisation of scholar transport service in a transparent and accountable manner whilst promoting BBBEE and to promote the co-ordination and co-operation with respect to scholar transport service amongst all stakeholders, to monitor and evaluate scholar transport services and the impact of the policy.
In response Department of Education said: “The heavy rains which persisted for three consecutive weeks hindered the service provider from transporting the pupils to and from school because the roads were muddy and his buses got stuck. Hence some of the learners could not finalise their exams by not writing certain subjects. However the department has arranged that all affected learners be granted an opportunity to sit for exams on Tuesday, April 8 to finalize their outstanding subjects.
As a department we will also investigate other issues raised by the parents concerning Shabangu of the Walking Stick company, to establish facts and ensure that the matter is resolved in the best way possible.”
Shabangu refused to respond to the allegations.
