The Chairperson of the North West Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Community Safety and Transport Management (COSATMA), Freddy Sonakile has demanded an urgent, comprehensive report from the North West Department of Community Safety and Transport Management on Thursday, 23 July 2026.
“There can be no bargaining with the lives and safety of our learners. If departmental officials failed to pay legitimate service providers and that negligence placed children at risk, then heads must roll.
“Equally, where operators deliberately failed to honour their contractual obligations despite being able to do so, the Department must invoke the cancellation clauses contained in the Service Level Agreements without hesitation. Accountability cannot be selective when the lives of our children are at stake,” said Sonakile.
The directive comes amid revelations that hundreds of scholar transport vehicles failed to show up for mandatory pre-term roadworthiness inspections, leaving thousands of learners stranded.
While the department blamed operators for failing to comply with safety compliance checks, transport providers have hit back with serious allegations of financial neglect. Multiple operators claim they have not been paid by the department for up to three months.
They argue that this prolonged non-payment has left them financially crippled and unable to service, repair, or transport their vehicles to testing stations for the mandatory checks.
Sonakile, stated that the committee will not tolerate finger-pointing while children’s education and safety are compromised. The committee has ordered a granular investigation to unearth the root cause of the compliance breakdown.
The requested departmental report must investigate the crisis on a route-by-route and operator-by-operator basis. This targeted approach aims to verify the non-payment claims, identify non-compliant operators, and establish clear accountability for the operational failure.
Scholar transport in the North West remains a critical lifeline for rural learners who walk long distances to access schooling. The deadlock between the department and operators highlights ongoing structural flaws in the province’s scholar transport procurement and payment systems.
The Portfolio Committee has urged the department to expedite its report and implement immediate contingency measures to ensure learners can safely return to the classroom without further disruptions.
City Report understands that the Committee has explicitly directed the Department to address core failures in contract enforcement, financial administration, and operational oversight that left thousands of learners stranded.
The Committee’s directive forces the Department to explicitly detail four primary areas of concern in its upcoming submission:
- Non-Compliant Operators: The Department must provide a definitive list identifying every transport operator who failed to present their fleet for mandatory vehicle safety and roadworthiness inspections, alongside the specific reasons given for their non-compliance.
- Impact of Non-Payments: Officials must address whether persistent outstanding payments and mounting financial backlogs owed by the Department directly hindered operators from maintaining their fleets or fulfilling the compliance inspection mandates.
- Disciplinary Action: The report must outline the exact contractual penalties or internal disciplinary actions to be taken against transport operators and government officials whose negligence led to the systemic failure.
- Disruption Log: The Department must furnish a comprehensive route-by-route account of all scholar transport disruptions reported on the first day of the third term, specifying areas where learners were left stranded and unable to attend classes.
The Committee’s directive follows a string of damning findings regarding the state of scholar transport across the country.
A recent probe by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) exposed severe, widespread risks threatening learners:
- Unroadworthy vehicles operating with severe mechanical defects.
- Chronic overcrowding forcing multiple unsafe trips.
- Weak oversight and non-existent monitoring capacity by local departments.
- Budget mismanagement leaving critical service providers unpaid.
