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Despite starting off the new school year with uncertainty about whether learners in Sea Vista, St Francis Bay, would have access to the Eastern Cape Department of Transport’s scholar transport system to travel 25km to their school in Humansdorp, the community quickly banded together, and for more than a week have been transporting over 100 learners with their own vehicles.
The Democratic Alliance’s Dr Vicky Knoetze, Tsitsi-Kouga Constituency Leader, said that since the schools opened on January 17, at least 100 learners from Sea Vista have been without scholar transport.
Thankfully, she said that DA members and the community of St Francis Bay quickly came together to assist the learners by transporting them with their own vehicles.
“The community members working together to make sure that the learners get to school safely is a testament to their efforts and commitment,” said Knoetze.
She said that the DA has continued to visit the bus stop each day, and has had to see the “heartbreaking reality” that learners without transport must endure.
She said that the blame for this travesty must be laid squarely at the feet of the Eastern Cape Department of Transport, which has made empty promises that it’s all systems go, when the programme has clearly collapsed.
Knoetze said that the DA walked the 25km distance from Sea Vista to Humansdorp Secondary School alongside the community on January 24, where they launched a petition which will be submitted to the office of the MEC of Transport, Xolile Nqatha, to demand that the learners of Sea Vista receive transport.
“We demand that the MEC takes action to ensure that scholar transport is provided to the learners,” said Knoetze. “It is critical that these learners receive transport to access their constitutional right to education.”
She said that without access to quality education, the future of the learners and the country hangs in the balance.
Athol Trollip, ActionSA Eastern Cape provincial chairperson, said that they are deeply concerned about the scholar transport crisis affecting learners in Sea Vista.
He said the problem is that without scholar transport parents are required to pay R1 000 per month for private transport services, and if they have more than one child the amount becomes unaffordable.
“The heartbreaking stories of learners that are left stranded without reliable transport demands immediate attention and action,” said Trollip.
To help combat the challenge, he said that he had joined the efforts of transporting the learners to schools in Humansdorp.
Trollip said that ActionSA will visit Sea Vista Primary School on January 26, and will then proceed to the Sea Vista Hall at 14:00 to engage with the affected communities.
He said that they remain committed to addressing the immediate needs of the community and advocating for long-term solutions to prevent future disruption to the education of the youth.
Trollip said that they will ensure that children have access to high quality educational opportunities tailored to their needs and circumstances, which they believe is an essential requirement for improving the development of society.
He further said that it is important that the transport contracts are awarded to contractors who have reliable and safe transportation, to ensure that the learners get to school on time, while a long-term solution would be to build a high school and Xhosa medium junior school for the rapidly-growing community.
According to the spokesperson for the Eastern Cape Department of Transport, Unathi Binqose, they have issues with the contracting of operators for scholar transport, which they are attending to.
He said that the main contract that has been used over the last few years came to an end late last year, and they have begun creating new contracts for the operators this year.
“We do have teams of officials that are working around the clock to ensure that operators are allocated, and the service is provided to the deserving learners,” said Binqose.
“We remain hopeful that we will get the job done no later than this week.”
Binqose said that St Francis Bay is not the only area that is currently experiencing difficulties with scholar transport; there are other areas throughout the province that are battling as well.
“We wish to salute those parents that have taken up the challenge to ensure that their children get to and from school,” said Binqose.
