SOWETAN SAYS | Officials must account for school buses woes

The department’s financial year concluded at the end of March and that, we assume, was the period the department planned for. But it is not a valid excuse. The department cannot reasonably claim to have been caught off guard by its implementation of the new payments system it planned for. 

This incident once again underscores the government’s failure to do what is expected of it, and that such failure is not victimless. The department failed to do its job properly, causing unnecessary misery for thousands of pupils and their parents.

In our story today, a parent said she had to forgo her workday to accompany her child on an hour-long walk to Mkhulu Combined School in Middelburg. The transportation impasse also inconvenienced teachers as they must now prepare catch-up lessons and activities for pupils who missed out on classwork due to the lack of buses.

Given the myriad social problems this country contends with regarding the lives of its young, we cannot afford to have more youth falling through the cracks of our basic education system.

The Mpumalanga government is guilty of neglecting its constitutional duty to make sure every child goes to school as dictated by the South African Children’s Act of 2005.

Section 7 of the Act outlines the duty of the state to respect, protect, promote and fulfil a child’s rights, including their right to education. This means the state must make provisions for education to be accessible and available to all children. It is the government’s duty to ensure no child is denied their right to education because of a lack of transportation in areas where it is needed.

The Mpumalanga officials tasked with ensuring transport operators are paid monthly must be held to account for this avoidable crisis that negatively affected learners and their schooling.