Durban — Parents at uMlazi were frustrated after their children were left stranded, because their scholar transports did not come to fetch them.
Scholar transport owners alleged that they were scared that Operation Hlokomela members would “take their cars away”.
Operation Hlokomela represents the taxi industry’s concern and care for the safety of the passengers, pedestrians, and the community at large.
Pupils who were affected are from Velabahleke and Menzi high schools.
Nosipho Kato KaMagudulela Zulu took to social media to express her frustration, she said about 13 pupils from Menzi and Velabahleke were stranded after school as their scholar transports did not come to fetch them – saying they were scared that their vehicles would be taken away.
“The uncles who fetch pupils from the schools have permits, but Hlokomela wants them to pay more money because they are taking high school pupils.”
Zulu said she had to transport some of the pupils to their homes and others had to walk back to their homes.
“I was able to transport five pupils and the rest had to walk; the majority of the pupils were girls and they had to walk at 17h30. This did not sit well with me because another pupil did not know the way back home.
“We must also boycott taxis because without us they cannot run their taxi business. They need us,” she said.
Another parent, Nonhlanhla Nhla Shez Magongo, said her son came back home late on Tuesday and he did not understand why the scholar transport had not fetched them.
The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) spokesperson in KwaZulu Natal, Sifiso Shangase, said the scholar transport was now under Santaco and there is a signed agreement that high school pupils must take the mainstream taxis.
“The Hlokomela people are just following up on that document. We are not aware that there are threats of vehicles being taken; that is not allowed,” said Shangase.
He admitted that during the making and signing of the document, parents were not involved, only the scholar transport and Santaco. He said they had realised they needed to sit down and consider a few things.
“It happens that when a pupil starts school he was being transported by a particular someone and the parent trusts that person, so as they grow up and they go to high school, a parent feels that they should continue to be using their transport. Those are all the things that we need to sit down and look at. However, there is no new document at the moment so we are working according to what we agreed on,” he said.
He further said that parents who were using private vehicles to take their children to school should not be worried because this did not apply to them.
“We are mostly looking at vehicles that are making a profit by transporting pupils to schools. They should have a permit from the government,” he said.
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