Sijaga Mtswene of Sijaga Trading said the Education Department requested him to reduce kilometres to fetch the school learners residing in the Waaikraal farm to schools in Botleng township.
Learners in Klipspruit farms in Waaikraal encounter more than 16km distance to catch a school bus because the department allegedly cut the kilometres of the bus transport service provider. The story was covered in the previous edition of Highveld Chronicle where queries were sent to the department from 17 February for at least the next three weeks.
Education spokesperson, Gerald Sambo, kept saying he was enquiring from his colleagues at the Nkangala District, however, three weeks later he said the scholar transport is with the Department of Public Works and Transport. The pressure has mounted on the parents who fear for the safety of their children who have to pass through farm bushes to catch the scholar bus going to the various schools in Botleng.
Mtswene said he initially wrote a letter to the Education Department requesting and the request was approved by the department in June 2019 with the request to reduce kilometres of the bus stop. This meant learners in the far distant farms had to walk the 16km distance to catch a bus, he claimed. In his second letter Mtswene alleged that he warned the department that they made a mistake by reducing the kilometres, and the department said it would “fix this situation”, however, they were not paying him a full amount for both buses that were operating.
“But the bus was still fetching the learners from far in Klipspruit even though I was not getting paid but when my second bus broke in September last year [2020] they reduced the payment further that’s when we stopped going to fetch the learners in Klipspruit farms,” he said.
Public Works’s Cyril Dlamini said, “The department has provided sufficient transport to all learners who qualify for scholar transport services in the area. An additional bus was also provided in 2019 to cater for extra learners.”
On the morning of 8 March Highveld Chronicle went to Waaikraal and Klipspruit to observe where the bus stops which is near a bridge at Waaikraal informal settlements and not directly at the farms. Sambo had said that the transport is meant to cater for learners in the farm areas and as one resident, Michael Skhosana, complained: “If it was not for this farm kids, the transport wouldn’t be there and therefore those kids at the informal settlement wouldn’t have access to it but look now the bus stops at those shacks to collect those ones and leaves these ones at the farms.”
Dlamini further said: “The pick-up point of these learners is at van Wyk farm and there is no other arrangement to the contrary. As a result, the department is investigating the allegations that the service provider is not adhering to the above arrangement which has allegedly resulted in learners having to travel long distances.” Contrary to this, the bus does not even stop at van Wyk farm meaning the department has not done an assessment on exactly where on this farm the bus stops.
“Due to the fact that Waaikraal settlement is situated at the border of Gauteng Province, the department has noted that there are learners who are travelling from Gauteng to attend school in Mpumalanga who are not catered for. This matter is being escalated to the Gauteng province for further intervention,” said Dlamini. Sambo said the department is still investigating the matter of the learner Sifiso Shosana from Swartklip Combined School who was expelled for being late due to these scholar transport shenanigans.
