Boulders and tree stumps blockaded the busy R72 yesterday morning as parents and pupils from Tsholomnqa High School protested over a lack of scholar transport.
Traffic was brought to a standstill as they sang and toyi-toyed in the street, carrying placards as public order police on stand-by watched.
Their only demand was the immediate reinstatement of scholar transport, which was cancelled in 2010 with no explanation.
Pupils now have to walk to school, some as far as 21km.
Parent Iodine Steyi said it was a painful situation.
“All we have been fighting for these past few years is transport for our children. We have been from office to office in Bhisho but all we have been getting are endless promises,” she said.
“We are tired. We have had enough. We are spending too much money on private transport and we are unemployed. The sad thing is that our children are too young to be walking like this.”
Steyi lives around 10km from the school in Kiwane Village.
Another parent, Vuyelwa Skolisi, said what made the situation worse was the lack of public transport in the area.
“Our children resort to hitchhiking but that’s not safe, especially for the girls. But if there’s no lift then they walk, only arriving at school at around 12pm,” Skolisi said.
Ntsikelelo Rasi, who has two children enrolled at the school, said countless visits to the departments of education and transport had yielded no positive results.
“Every official we speak to says the matter will be sorted out but it has been years,” he complained.
Transport department spokesman Ncedo Kumbaca confirmed that pupils from Tsholomnqa High had been removed from the scholar transport beneficiary list in 2010.
“We don’t know what happened because it was the education department running the programme at that time and not us,” he said.
“Furthermore, we cannot transport these kids until we get the go-ahead from education so the parents must liaise with them.”
Education department spokesman Malibongwe Mtima acknowledged the scholar transport shortage in the area.
“Despite that, we want to bring to everyone’s attention that there are beneficiaries from the area and that is why we want to appeal to the parents to please allow the department to sort this matter out by following the correct departmental procedures, bearing in mind the budget constraints,” Mtima said. — zisandan@dispatch.co.za
Parents, pupils protest over scholar transport
Traffic was brought to a standstill as they sang and toyi-toyed in the street, carrying placards as public order police on stand-by watched.
Their only demand was the immediate reinstatement of scholar transport, which was cancelled in 2010 with no explanation.
Pupils now have to walk to school, some as far as 21km.
Parent Iodine Steyi said it was a painful situation.
“All we have been fighting for these past few years is transport for our children. We have been from office to office in Bhisho but all we have been getting are endless promises,” she said.
“We are tired. We have had enough. We are spending too much money on private transport and we are unemployed. The sad thing is that our children are too young to be walking like this.”
Steyi lives around 10km from the school in Kiwane Village.
Another parent, Vuyelwa Skolisi, said what made the situation worse was the lack of public transport in the area.
“Our children resort to hitchhiking but that’s not safe, especially for the girls. But if there’s no lift then they walk, only arriving at school at around 12pm,” Skolisi said.
Ntsikelelo Rasi, who has two children enrolled at the school, said countless visits to the departments of education and transport had yielded no positive results.
“Every official we speak to says the matter will be sorted out but it has been years,” he complained.
Transport department spokesman Ncedo Kumbaca confirmed that pupils from Tsholomnqa High had been removed from the scholar transport beneficiary list in 2010.
“We don’t know what happened because it was the education department running the programme at that time and not us,” he said.
“Furthermore, we cannot transport these kids until we get the go-ahead from education so the parents must liaise with them.”
Education department spokesman Malibongwe Mtima acknowledged the scholar transport shortage in the area.
“Despite that, we want to bring to everyone’s attention that there are beneficiaries from the area and that is why we want to appeal to the parents to please allow the department to sort this matter out by following the correct departmental procedures, bearing in mind the budget constraints,” Mtima said. — zisandan@dispatch.co.za
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending Now
Latest Videos