Transport fiasco hits pupils

Thousands of pupils across the Eastern Cape were left stranded yesterday and forced to walk to school or stay home as pupil transport operators failed to collect them.

Scenes of children idly waiting on the roadside, sitting at home or desperately trying to hitchhike to school played themselves out across areas of Buffalo City and surrounds and in former Transkei.

This was despite Eastern Cape transport MEC Weziwe Tikana on Tuesday promising that no pupil would be left stranded on the first day of school.

The department yesterday said only 2% of pupils were not transported to school.

Spokesman Ncedo Kumbaca said mainly schools in the Amathole district had been affected.

“Yes, we can confirm that there were few areas that experienced this, where learners walked to school, but we are working on fixing that,” said Kumbaca.

He said some of the problems were caused by operators who had delayed signing transport contracts with the department.

“Some were reluctant to leave their businesses to sign agreements but they finally did.”

Investigations by a Daily Dispatch team revealed that schools in Lusikisiki, Port St Johns, King William’s Town and East London experienced transport related problems.

A South African Democratic Teacher’s Union (Sadtu) member in Port St Johns, Besuthu Sonandi, said some routes in the area, including Qandu and Mkhazini villages, had not been serviced by scholar transport yesterday and some pupils reportedly arrived at their schools after 10am.

“A number of learners from our area do not benefit from scholar transport,” he said.

Ngqeleni district was also affected as some learners had to walk for more than 30km.

Ngqeleni Sadtu branch secretary Wonga Ndzamela said one school had asked parents to look for accommodation for their children close to the school.

In the Amathole district many parents and teachers voiced frustration as learners were stranded.

At East London’s Nxarhuni and Tshabo villages, schooling was disrupted as some pupils arrived at school two hours late.

Nowawe Senior Secondary School in Tshabo was one of those affected while in Tsholomnqa, scores of learners desperately tried to hail down passing cars for lifts to school, while many more attempted to walk.

Others merely sat on the side of the road in hope that a scholar transport provider would arrive.

Pupils living in Ncera Village had to walk about 20km to Zweliyandile and Tsholomnqa high schools.

Operators were also left frustrated as they waited in long queues at the transport offices to sign contract agreements.

Mdantsane East London Taxi Association (Melta) spokesman Welile Blayi said transport MEC Tikana had lied when promising pupils would not be left stranded.

“We slept at the transport offices after some of us arrived there in the afternoon on Tuesday. There were more than 500 operators and we were cramped in the boardroom and the front area while we waited to sign the contract because without the agreements there was nothing we could do.”

But Kumbaca said officials were working to solve the problems.

“The department has exceeded its target for the inspection of vehicles that will participate in the scholar transport programme. A total of 1532 vehicles were inspected and a few were disqualified.”

lAnyone experiencing problems should call the department at 0800-644-644 or SMS 32936.