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The DA welcomes an announcement by Kwa-Zulu-Natal (KZN) Education MEC, Mbali Frazer, that additional funding to the tune of R263million will be provided for learner transport in the province in the form of a bail-out by National Treasury.

The announcement comes after the DA raised the alarm in July. This after we established that the Learner Transport Programme (LTP) budget had been slashed by almost half during the 2022/23 financial year.

Had this latest adjustment, as announced by the MEC, not been made, 74 000 KZN learners, from 400 schools would not have been able to get to school.

Added to the DA’s concerns are the ongoing issues of learners who are illegally overloaded on transport funded by the Department of Education (DoE), along with those transported within an unregulated informal sector.

KZN’s DoE is on record stating that it is illegally and knowingly transporting 20 582 learners. Then there are the innumerable number of learners transported by uMalume – ‘uncles’ in bakkies and trucks – and other means of informal transport.

These issues should be giving MEC Frazer sleepless nights given the carnage on our roads as a result of unsafe means of transport. The bottom line is that KZN’s DoE is not able to adequately provide for learner transport in our province.

One possible solution, which is currently being rolled out, is re-routing some government paid transporters to ensure that more schools are covered. While this will provide increased access to the LTP service, the risk of even more overloaded vehicles – and potential wanton loss of children’s lives - must be guarded against.

The DA will continue to monitor the implementation and funding of KZN’s LTP to ensure a safe service for our learners. We will also continue to advocate for more funding from National Treasury to allow greater access for more children, some of whom walk 20km or more each day to get to school and back home.

KZN’s Taliban faction of the ANC-run government has ensured that our province’s coffers are dry while we lurch from one crisis to the next, under their supposed watch. The citizens of KZN can rescue our province through the ballot box next year. The opportunity to do so has never been greater.

Issued by Dr Imran Keeka, MPL - DA KZN Spokesperson on Education