North West: The authorities in North West Province of South Africa are verifying and inspecting the buses used to transport students ahead of the coming academic session.
The new process comes as the Department of Community Safety and Transport Management is preparing for the commencement of learner transportation services in January 2024. Notably, this critical step ensures the safety and compliance of the vehicles, emphasising the commitment to providing reliable and high-quality transportation for students.
The ongoing process spans various locations where learner transport operators are contracted, marking a significant milestone in the meticulous selection and preparation of suitable transport options.
As part of completing the long and arduous process of contracting the learner transport operators, the Department has begun the verification and inspection of process busses that will ferry learners from January 2024.
This process is in part to ensure that the appointed contractors are complying with the specifications of the contract including the roadworthiness of buses.
The inspection and the verification process are underway simultaneously from Monday, the 11th, to Thursday 14th of December 2023, at various centres across the Province. The Department has so far awarded scholar transport contracts to 447 operators that will use 769 busses to transport learners over 511 cumulative routes across the Province.
As MEC Lehari has emphasized when briefed by HOD Dr Hans Kekana on processes to be followed, challenges experienced in the past should not recur in 2024.
“We have had a lot of challenges, and this new contract should address the unroadworthy vehicles, operators that previously abandoned routes without informing the Department as well overloading of learners,” said MEC Lehari.
“The Department is committed to ensuring that learners are transported safely and reliably and in compliance with the law, hence this exercise,” said Dr Hans Kekana.
Some of the challenges experienced before include overloading, unroadworthy buses and late arrival of learners as some operators had to transport learners to more than one school.
The operators who will sign service-level agreements with the Department will begin ferrying learners when schools reopen in mid-January 2023.
