MORE than one third of deserving pupils in the Eastern Cape have not been catered for in the state scholar transport budget this financial year.
The Daily Dispatch has learnt the transport department allocated R356-million to ferry only about 56000 pupils from the 94938 who qualify, meaning about 39000 pupils will not get transport this year. According to a provincial education department report, transport needs a further R32.5-million for the year.
This year’s budget allocation was less than the R369-million set aside last year. The number of qualifying pupils last year was 102209. Only 55537 were ferried.
The report states that the highest demand is in OR Tambo this year but most beneficiaries are in the Amathole district.
“Demand for the service far outweighs supply. Not all deserving learners are transported and this results in impromptu instability as services and in some instances classes are disrupted by aggrieved communities. Only about half the qualifying learners are being transported at present due to budgetary constraints,” the report states.
The budget shortfall was confirmed by transport MEC Weziwe Tikana in her response to DA parliamentary questions following a damning report released by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on scholar transport challenges.
“The department is continuously in contact with the department of education and provincial planning and treasury to highlight the shortage of budget for the scholar transport services,” Tikana said.
She said last month her department provided a detailed request of the shortfall to the medium term expenditure committee (MTEC).
“Until sufficient funding is made available the department is not in a position to guarantee that findings of this nature will not recur,” she said.
Attempts to reach SAHRC spokesman Isaac Mangena for comment were unsuccessful.
Provincial treasury spokeswoman Nosisa Sogayise confirmed it had engaged with transport and other departments as part of MTEC hearings but said she was not at liberty to divulge the contents of the discussions.
“I can only reveal the outcome of those discussions after the provincial executive council has endorsed those decisions,” she said.
Education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima referred questions to the transport department.
Transport spokesman Ncedo Kumbaca said engagements were ongoing to ensure that all beneficiaries were accommodated. “We want to have all pupils transported to schools.”
He said there was a drop in the number of beneficiaries this year and this could have resulted in the decrease in budget allocation.
DA MPL Marshall von Buchenroder said he would demand more answers from Tikana.
“There are SAHRC findings about this and I’m going to ask the MEC to give us a detailed plan on how they are going to resolve this.”
“We cannot allow another school year to be disrupted where learners are left in the lurch because of inadequate transport.”
UDM MPL Max Mhlati, who chairs the provincial standing committee on public accounts, said scholar transport was government policy and both departments should work together to ensure that pupils are ferried.
“Clearly, there is no proper planning and coordination between these departments.
“If these schools hire their own transport and take these departments to court, they will win the case and the government will have to repay them.
“It will cause another wasteful expenditure in the provincial government,” Mhlati said. — msindisif@dispatch.co.za