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KwaZulu-Natal pupils who rely on the government to be ferried to schools could find themselves stranded as the Department of Transport has indicated its intention to discontinue with Scholar Transport programme next year.
Addressing members of the Finance Portfolio Committee recently, the department blamed the Department of Education over its failure to pay for the learner transport budget item, adding that this had placed its finances under pressure.
This was in response to committee member Phumlani Mfeka from uMkhonto weSizwe Party who had questioned why the department had not completed infrastructure projects, noting how this was impacting on development.
According to Mfeka, failure to spend on infrastructure was thwarting development, especially in rural areas.
“For any area to have economic activity you need access. No one wants to invest in such areas,” Mfeka said.
Head of the Transport Department Siboniso Mbhele expressed reservations on the manner which the education department had dealt with the project over the past months, and the financial pressure in which this had put on the department.
“The biggest challenge that we have is with the department of education with a programme called learner transport. We contract on their behalf with the hope and expectation that they will fund the programme once we have contracted the service providers,” Mbhele told committee members.
He explained that while the department of education was expected to finance the transaction, this had not been the case in recent times.
“It has been a norm that in the last three to four years that we find ourselves in a position where we have to take money from infrastructure and fund the scholar transport,” Mbhele added.
He said the department had presented a report before cabinet last year after the education department had failed to come on board, but the effort had not yielded any positive results.
According to Mbhele, in recent times the education department had once again failed to pay the budget item and placed the future of learners who were supposed to write their examinations in jeopardy.
He indicated that the matter was currently being discussed by Transport MEC Siboniso Duma and Education MEC Sipho Hlomuka.
“We are preparing a memo for Cabinet to say that if this is perpetual we will be forced to divert and then the department will not be able to carry out its mandate,” Mbhele said.
He said they ran out of money to fund the scholar transport in October this year, but continued out of a sense of civic duty with the programme.
“As part of the collective it was going to be irresponsible of us to say there is not funding and therefore kids cannot go to school to write their exams. That is the catch that we find ourselves in right now,” said Mbhele.
The contents of the memorandum, Mbhele continued, will point to the strain the department has endured over the years and appeal for decisive action to be taken on the matter.
“The memo that we are preparing is the one that says that come January, we will not be able to provide scholar transport in as much as much as we have contracted and have a legitimate contracts, we are sceptical because those service providers will take us to court and the court will ask us to pay. So that is the dilemma,” said Mbhele.
Committee chairperson Mthandeni Dlungwane indicated that the committee will continue monitoring the department to ensure proper spending of the budget.