As a result, parents across the district were irate when their children were stranded at schools on Friday, and then not collected for school on Monday, September 12.
According to Harold Williams, spokesperson for the Provincial Traffic Department, the problems detected on Friday were mainly servicing, parking brake and under-carriage defects.
Provincial deputy director of the Department of Transport and Public Works, Melvin Arendse, explained that the Provincial Traffic Department’s testing of school buses in the Knysna area formed part of a national operation to clamp down on public transport vehicles.
Williams explained that of the 13 buses that were tested and discontinued, five belonged to the African Express Bus Company, four belonged to Nobel Bus Service, one belonged to Grey Journey’s Bus Service, one belonged to Witbooi Bus Service and two belonged to Benjamin’s Bus Service (the latter had voluntarily taken its buses to be tested).
Arendse confirmed that qualified officials tested the 13 buses on Friday and that Benjamin Bus Services had voluntarily brought four of their school buses to be tested.
Benjamin Bus Services
Naziem Benjamin, owner of the Paarl-based Benjamin’s Bus Company, stated that of the four buses that he had voluntarily tested on Friday, none were in fact suspended.
He explained that he chose to have his buses tested because he wanted to play a leading role in inspiring other bus companies to be actively involved in assuring the safety of their vehicles.
According to Benjamin, the test on Friday indicated some very minor problems (such as a slight crack on the lens of a light) and that these were all repaired.
Williams, however provided a Western Cape Department of Community Safety document, which states that two of the Benjamin’s Bus Services Buses were suspended on Friday, September 9.
Benjamin assured the Knysna-Plett Herald that the four buses were re-tested on Monday, September 12, and immediately became operational again after the tests.
Children stranded
Reports of children being left at schools and others alongside the road, started reaching this newspaper on Friday afternoon. Residents complained that children in areas such as Concordia and White Location were seen walking home, or being transported in police vehicles or by passing residents.
According to an anonymous source it is illegal to transport learners in a police vehicle. Constable Chris Spies, and Captain Malcom Pojie, SAPS liaison officers SAPS were unavailable for comment at time of going to press.
It was further reported that the lack of transport had forced many learners to stay at home on Monday and Tuesday, September 12 and 13, while the Department of Education attempted to find a solution to the crisis.
Schools in the area confirmed that they had been negatively affected by the bus crisis, reporting that pupils across the board failed to attend school on both Monday and Tuesday. Sundridge Primary School’s principal, Leon Solomons, confirmed that all four schools in the Hornlee district were affected by the bus crisis.
"Children have to stay at home today (Monday). I had spoken to one of the bus contractors and he said with certainty that there would be no buses available today to transport these learners. The contractor also said that there might be one or two buses available by tomorrow (Tuesday), but he was not sure of this himself." explained Solomons.
One concerned mother told the Knysna-Plett Herald that many children in the Greater Knysna region had set their alarms for 05:00 on Monday morning in an effort to reach bus stations in time, only to realise, after hours of waiting, that no bus would arrive. Some of these learners found alternative transport to school, while other had to return home.
SADTU and WCED explain
Simphiwe Mbalo, deputy secretary of Knysna’s branch of SADTU (South African Democratic Teachers Union), expressed his concern regarding the stranded learners, saying: "The bus situation is a crisis, not only for the learners, but also for their teachers." He explained that Percy Mdala High School has 1400 learners of whom 700 were transported to school by bus. "This is a critical time of the year as learners write exams and because of this bus crises they arrived late and teachers had to repeat lessons."
He further explained that SADTU was worried about the safety of the learners as many had to walk approximately 5km along busy roads to school.
Mbalo said that this bus crisis was a danger and frustration to the learners as they could easily get robbed, assaulted and knocked down en route to their schools.
"One point that we (SADTU) have to make is that the Department of Education must make sure that they build schools nearer to the communities, which would alleviate the need for shool buses."
Bronagh Casey, spokesperson for Minister of Education Donald Grant, explained: "We are currently trying to arrange alternative transport for learners. We have arranged transport for, specifically, the Grade 12 learners, so that they do not miss any of their exams."
In response to allegations that the department was not making the necessary arrangements prior to the school buses being tested, she replied: "This was not a WCED initiative, therefore we were not aware of which buses would be suspended until the Traffic Department alerted us."
Casey further explained that the ministry is not able to predict which buses would be pulled over or suspended.
Unfortunately, Steven Otter, spokesperson for Minister of Public Transport and Works, Robyn Carlisle, had not provided comment at time of going to press.
Circuit Four manager of the Western Cape Education Department, Suzette de Villiers, explained that all the role-players had conducted a meeting on Tuesday, September 13 to ascertain the situation of learners transportation. "The Traffic Department informed us that one or two busses of each company had been tested and were in operation again."
She further said that the transport of learners as well as school attendance was back to 80% of the norm.
De Villiers explained that some buses would have to "run double trips".
She further said that they had not experienced any problems with the transporting of learners to the various schools on Wednesday, September 14. De Villiers concluded, "An alternative plan was discussed, should there have been problems with the buses this morning (Wednesday), but as there were no problems, these plans were not implemented."
ARTICLE: ROZANO ALIE AND FRAN KIRSTEN, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD REPORTERS
