More than 100 pupils joined their parents for a march in Wednesday’s chilly weather to the Rubusana education offices in Mdantsane to demand the help of the state scholar transport programme.
The pupils are from the six Mdantsane schools of Ulwazi and David Mama High and Funulwazi, Zwelihle, Lwandisa and Ncotsheni Primary.
Their parents said some of their children would have to walk more than 20km from New Life and Chicken Farm to school and back if the problem was not resolved.
Parent Neliswa Meleni said their children had been stranded since last Friday, when the bus driver told them he would no longer ferry them. They had all missed school this week.
“Our children had no transport since last week and have been sitting doing nothing at home. We have been going up and down to Zwelitsha [provincial education headquarters] getting no answers.“Our children have to walk long distances to school and that is not fair. By the time they get to class they are too tired to concentrate on their studies.”
Meleni said before they were relocated from Ziphunzana and Duncan Village in 2016, their children did not need scholar transport.
“We moved to the area when we received RDP houses. It was easier for our children to attend school back in our previous home as they could just leave the house and walk to school. But now the school is so far away they need transport and the majority of parents here cannot afford that,” she said.
“Our children cannot just be sitting at home when it’s close to exam time. This will affect them badly.”
Another parent, Ntombikayise Melani, echoed Meleni’ s sentiments.
“My child was on the list and we were told that they would be having transport to school for free. But the driver of the bus stopped fetching them and we saw some being left behind.”
Asked to comment specifically on Wednesday’s march, provincial education spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima instead gave a broad comment, saying the number of pupils needing scholar transport had increased by 3,000 in the East London district this year.
“We are still trying to verify the numbers. The East London district had submitted 9,967 pupils to be transported, but now we have realised that the taxis are transporting 12,067 pupils and that number is too high.
“There are [a few thousand] pupils that we do not know where they come from.”
Mtima blamed parents for the problem.
“The drivers have told us that parents are forcing drivers to transport their kids and this causes an overload.
“When the drivers tell them that they will only transport the required number, the parents stop the drivers and say they must not transport anyone if some of the children will be left behind,” Mtima said...