Government is working on reviewing legislation governing scholar transport with a view to make the sector safer and more secure for learners.
This according to Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi who held a media briefing on Tuesday afternoon in the wake of a horrific accident which claimed the lives of 12 children on Monday.
The taxi transporting the children were in crashed into an oncoming truck while they were on their way to school.
“An incident of this magnitude calls for a review of some of our legislation, regulations and the support system in this sector. The MEC responsible for transport and the MEC of education have been assigned to come with proposals that will assist us to ensure that we eliminate this kind of behaviour within the transport sector.
“Once more, our sincere condolences to the families and speedy recovery for those that are still within our hospitals,” Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi said.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube – who was also at the media briefing – noted that daily, hundreds of thousands of children are transported to school by government sanctioned scholar transport.
She added that the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Transport have been working to “collaborate to see how best we can regulate this sector”.
“Over 700 000 children in the basic education sector are transported by scholar transport. So, while we may be able to do checks on the carriers of learners, the reality is that there are private arrangements that we don’t know about. That’s why it’s become important that we work not only with the provinces, but with the Department of Transport that has already come on board.
“It’s very important that we note that while we want to review a lot of some of the policy regulations around scholar transport, over 80% of the incidents that happen on our road are due to driver error.
“It is because of motorists who are not behaving well on the roads. Who are not adhering to the rules of the road. We can’t keep coming to families and sending condolences and saying we are deeply sorry,” the Minister said.
Government, the local community and private sector have come together to support the bereaved families.
“We are a sector in absolute mourning. We are mourning the loss of innocent lives of our young ones. I want to assure South Africans that government, from a local level, provincial level and national level, will ensure that all families are supported. Psycho-social support has already been activated so that we can make sure that families are supported.
“This psycho-social support is also extended to the schools, learners and educators of those children. That’s important to understand that even our schooling community is in mourning.
“This has been a community in mourning but this has also been a community that has rallied around these families,” Gwarube said.
Meanwhile, the 22-year-old driver of the taxi which caused the accident has been arrested and was found to have been driving with an expired professional driving permit (PDP) at the time of the accident.
According to police, the suspect will appear in the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate’s Court soon.
“He was arrested after he was discharged from hospital. He is…facing charges of 12 counts of culpable homicide and reckless and negligent driving.
“After the police visited the hospitals and the mortuary to verify the number of fatalities and injuries, it can be confirmed that 12 learners died at the accident scene and five were taken to the nearest hospitals for medical treatment, of which one has since been discharged.
“The driver of the truck that was involved in the accident escaped unharmed while the passenger sustained injuries and was receiving treatment in hospital,” a police statement read. – SAnews.gov.za
