The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Community Safety and Transport Management in the North West Provincial Legislature, Freddy Sonakile said the South African Human Rights Commission Final Inquiry Report on Scholar Transport in the province confirmed what they have long raised.
Affected communities and pupils have also complained about failures in the planning, funding, monitoring and execution of scholar transport. This has placed thousands of learners at risk, undermined their right to basic education, and compromised their dignity, safety and wellbeing.
The report indicated at least 5,468 eligible learners remained without scholar transport, alongside persistent challenges relating to unroadworthy vehicles, overcrowding, unpaid service providers, inadequate vetting of drivers, and insufficient accommodation of learners with disabilities.
Sonakile is concerned by the findings and directives that suggests these failures represent potential violations of section 29 of the Constitution, read with section 7(2), which places an immediate obligation on the state to fulfil the right to basic education.
“We further welcome the emphasis on consequence management, policy reform, electronic monitoring, and improved inter-departmental coordination.”
“As the Portfolio Committee responsible for oversight of transport and related safety matters, we wish to state unequivocally that non-compliance with these directives will not be tolerated, the Committee will actively track the 30-, 60-, 90- and 180-day milestones outlined by the Commission and that we will summon relevant departments and entities to account where progress is slow, unclear or absent,” said Sonakile.
Meanwhile, the Department of Community Safety and Transport Management in the province confirmed they will study the report especially remedial directives on ameliorating challenges experienced and thereafter call a media briefing on a way forward.
“It is however worth noting that the Department had already been attending to some of the challenges raised in the Report including engaging the Provincial Treasury on the budget shortfall,” said the department in a statement.
Key findings of the SAHRC include:
• Thousands of qualifying learners have been deprived of scholar transport, forcing them to walk long distances to school, arrive late for classes, or drop out of school altogether.
• Certain categories of needy learners are excluded from the scholar transport system.
• The majority of scholar transport services are characterised by vehicle overloading, the use of unroadworthy and unsafe vehicles, frequent breakdowns, and late collection and delivery of learners.
• Learners are often subjected to multiple trips, resulting in long travel times, fatigue, and interrupted learning.
• There is a lack of supervision of learners during transport, which exposes them to bullying, safety risks, and harm.
• Scholar transport is generally not provided for extra classes, lessons, and extracurricular activities, disadvantaging learners who rely on the programme.
• Transport drivers are not consistently vetted, increasing risks to learners’ safety and well-being.
• Learners with disabilities are not reasonably accommodated, resulting in exclusion and/or unsafe transport conditions.
• These failures violate learners’ constitutional rights, including the right to basic education, equality, dignity, and safety, and constitute unfair discrimination on the grounds of poverty and disability.
• funds, including payments exceeding R1 billion to service providers for services not rendered.
• Despite reported remedial measures, key challenges persist, particularly overloading, unroadworthy vehicles, and the non-accommodation of learners with disabilities.
• The violations stem from systemic failures, including insufficient and poorly managed budgets, weak oversight and contract enforcement, corruption, inadequate planning and coordination, policy gaps, role confusion, and a persistent disregard for legal obligations.
• These failures have had severe consequences for learners, including long and unsafe walks to school, drop-outs, exposure to criminality and other harms, interrupted teaching and learning, exhaustion and physical and mental illness, loss of educational opportunities, and the exclusion of learners with disabilities.
• The impact goes beyond subsidised transport, with issues such as overcrowding also affecting learners using private transport, underscoring the urgent need for stronger regulation, monitoring, and accountability across the entire scholar transport system.
• These failures and rights violations are directly attributable to the North West Department of Education (NW DOE) and the Department of Community Safety and Transport Management (COSATMA), as custodians of the scholar transport programme.
• The North West Provincial Treasury (NW PT) has been complicit in some of these failures by failing to take stricter measures to prevent the misuse of public funds.
