‘WILL TERMINATE NON COMPLIANT LEARNER TRANSPORT OPERATORS’ – SAYS MORWENG
North West MEC for Community Safety and Transport Management, Wessels Morweng says the Department will terminate contracts of non compliant learner transport operators who are not delivering according to the terms of the contract.
Speaking during his visit at Mponeng Primary School in Buffelshoek near Parys on the borders of North West and Free State, MEC Morweng discovered that there are service providers who do not transport learners to school with the number of appointed buses as per contract yet expect to be paid.
The school principal Ms Rene Jordan explained to MEC Morweng that there are three service providers with a total of four buses that are supposed to be operating at the school, however, only two buses are effectively operating.
“One operator is supposed to work with two buses but only one bus is effective and most worrying factor is that operators prefer to hire foreign drivers who are not even vetted as according to the policy,” said Ms Jordan, who further told MEC that learners are being dropped and picked up late at school.
After receiving the full report from the school principal, MEC Morweng instructed that the service providers who are not delivering must be terminated and either appoint or extend the scope of the service provider whose delivering according to the contract.
“We cannot keep non compliant contractors within the system. We must terminate them and appoint capable operators who will ensure that learners arrive safely at school and on time,” said Morweng.
The school has more than 120 learners from scattered farming areas around Buffelshoek with the longest distance of more than 40 kilometers.
MEC Morweng continues to visit schools in the Dr Dr Kenneth Kaunda District as part of the monitoring programme to asses the status of readiness of schools for the 2026 academic year.
—ENDS—
