Many Grahamstown parents were left to find alternative transport for their children to get to school following a stand-off between Grahamstown taxi operators and Double Portion, which holds the contract to transport scholars to school.
Many Grahamstown parents were left to find alternative transport for their children to get to school following a stand-off between Grahamstown taxi operators and Double Portion, which holds the contract to transport scholars to school.
“There was an upheaval over a change in the total number of learners on the scholar transport programme from last year’s 457 to currently 242,” said Mali Mtima, media liason and public relations officer for the Eastern Cape Department of Education.
Mtima believes that this change would have been caused by either Grade 12 learners who had passed and moved on to varsity, or learners who decided to relocate to other schools and/or provinces.
Mtima reported that there has been a “demand” from service providers to up the limit of learners on the programme, however the department clearly stated that under no circumstances would any extra learners be accommodated due to budgetary constraints.
“The transport system offered has always had problems which is why I have made alternative arrangements to transport my child to school every day – at least she will get their on time,” said one parent who says she is tired of the situation.
Twelve school routes that were proposed by the district to be put on the programme were not included in this year’s tendering process.
On Monday Mtima claimed that as far as the strike was concerned, the situation had stablised and the service providers resumed their scholar transport duties once more.
Confusion seemed to be fierce among parents when by the middle of the week services were clearly not back to normal despite reports to the contrary.
“I still had to make arrangements for my child to get to school this morning – the problem should have already been sorted out by now.
It’s Wednesday,” said a parent whose daughter is a pupil at Good Shepherd Primary School. At the time of going to print Border Alliance Taxi Association spokesperson, Nkosana Khuselo had not gotten back to Grocott’s Mail.
