The provision of scholar/learner transport services is currently a very topical issue in light of the devastating crash earlier this year that resulted in the deaths of a number of learners. We appreciate that everyone wants to weigh in with an opinion, but we also need to refute the factual basis of an article published by Lorenzo Davids in the Cape Argus on Monday, July 17.
The planning and regulation of public transport services is a complex area with different spheres of influence and control. It is a concurrent responsibility of all spheres of government. Our objective always as the Western Cape Government is to ensure that our children and our residents are transported safely and in a dignified manner.
It is a national legal requirement to register taxi associations and members. We are compelled in terms of law to register taxi associations and members.
In contrast, there are no provisions in law to register scholar transport associations. The Western Cape Mobility Department has made it clear to all scholar transport operators that there is no legal mandate to register representative organisations/associations or to assign any statutory powers to such associations. We have to give effect to the law in its current form.
The purpose of the scholar transport workshop that took place at the Westridge Civic Centre on July 14 was to educate and capacitate learner transport operators on the requirements of the current transport regulatory framework.
This included educating operators on the legal provisions to apply for a learner transport operating licence and to explain the process that will be followed by the Provincial Regulatory Entity (PRE) to process and adjudicate applications.
There are essentially two types of learner transport services. Firstly, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) is responsible for contracted learner services. These services are mainly required in rural areas where some learners reside more than 5kms away from the nearest schools.
However, the greatest challenge in the types of learner transport services is the provision of general learner transport services. These services are very often provided in terms of an agreement between a group of parents and a person who offers to transport their children between their homes and the schools attended by the learners. Given that these services are provided for a fare, it falls within the definition of a public transport service and therefore an operating licence is required.
The safety of scholars remains our utmost consideration. We have a duty as government to educate operators and parents around the legal requirements to ensure that learners are transported in a safe and dignified manner, and we will facilitate more engagements in the future.
* Western Cape MEC of Mobility, Ricardo Mackenzie.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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