FOUR ferry boats bought by the provincial Education Department to ferry pupils who cross rivers and dams to get to school are decaying on the premises of the Sharks Board. The boats have been “dumped” there for about two years now and the department is yet to give an explanation as to why. Zanele Zulu African News Agency (ANA) FOUR ferry boats bought by the provincial Education Department to ferry pupils who cross rivers and dams to get to school are decaying on the premises of the Sharks Board. The boats have been “dumped” there for about two years now and the department is yet to give an explanation as to why. Zanele Zulu African News Agency (ANA)
Durban - THREE years after the Education Department said that at least 181 schools had pupils crossing rivers or dams on their way to school, new Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu said yesterday that the department had no records of areas where pupils cross rivers.
Mshengu was speaking on eNCA on Tuesday morning.
“What is lacking is that the department doesn’t have records of where these areas really are across the province,” he said.
The MEC said the department had been reacting on the basis of “kneejerk reactions”, which were dependent on what surfaced in the media or was reported to the department.
Mshengu said a task team would produce a report which would identify affected areas. This would assist the department in coming up with a comprehensive response and intervention in KZN, where relevant departments would prioritise, for example, the building of bridges.
Nine years ago, The Mercury highlighted the dangers pupils in Elandskraal, 40km outside Dundee, faced while trying to get to school and back. This picture, which has been doing the rounds on social media recently, portrayed the desperate need for a bridge in the KwaDuna, KwaWoza and Ntekeni areas. Pupils at Ekhamanzi Primary School and Mphelandaba High School near Greytown still face the same journey. Picture: Doctor Ngcobo/African News Agency(ANA). Photo taken in 2011.
However, Mshengu’s comments clashed with what former Education MEC Mthandeni Dlungwana had said in his 2017/18 provincial budget vote. Dlungwana had said the department had officially launched the ferry boat programme in northern KZN after an audit revealed that pupils of at least 181 schools crossed rivers or dams to get to school.
Moreover, after the Daily News reported in November last year that ferry boats intended for pupils were docked at the KZN Sharks Board, education spokesperson Kwazi Mthethwa had said some rivers were not always high and that the department stored some boats during periods of drought.
On Tuesday Mthethwa said during the interview that Mshengu had been talking about pupils transport in general, and not specifically about pupils crossing rivers.
Mthethwa said the audit concerning the ferry boats dated back to when it was a pilot project, and reiterated that the boats could only function under certain conditions.
Thembeni kaMadlopha-Mthethwa, IFP spokesperson on education, said the party was still waiting for the department to respond to parliamentary questions they had asked about the ferry boats during Dlungwana’s tenure.
KaMadlopha-Mthethwa said the MEC could not say they had no record of which areas were affected.
Pupils crossing the river to get to school.
Picture: Doctor Ngcobo African News Agency (ANA)
“He (Mshengu) is basically swearing at the department, because the department is still there; all that changed was the political head, so he can’t say that. How did they buy the ferry boats if they did not have the records?” she said.
KaMadlopha-Mthethwa said perhaps the MEC should clarify what he meant in saying there was no record about affected schools.
Dr Imran Keeka, DA spokesperson on education, said it was ironic that while pupils had been crossing rivers and walking to school for years, the MEC and his department found this to be “a new revelation”.
“They’ve decided now, after the issue has been incessantly raised, to sit around a table to re-prioritise funding. The big question is what have they been doing all along? A DA oversight visit found three of them (boats) sitting on dry land at the KZN Sharks Board, while pupils have to cross swollen rivers given the current rain patterns. Of the eight boats procured at a cost of R500 000 each, only the whereabouts of these three are known and they are unusable because they have no captains in the department’s employ and they are the wrong size,” Keeka said.
Meanwhile, an expert said boats cannot be launched in shallow water because of the propellers running at the bottom of the vessels.
“Maybe waist-high water is fine, but it depends on how many people you’re loading on the boat. You need at least half a metre from the propeller to the bottom of the river. Then obviously you’re going to have rocks at the bottom of the river which have to be considered,” he said.