In April 1998, 33 people, including 30 school-going children, were killed on a road between Osizweni township and Newcastle in the north of KwaZulu-Natal when five vehicles were involved in a crash. The children who perished that afternoon were on their way from school.
The funeral was held at the local Osizweni stadium, bringing the small town to a halt. Then president Nelson Mandela visited locals to commiserate. This is one of the worst scholar transport accidents we have seen in the country, involving many young people whose lives were cut short while on a trip to or from school — a place their parents hoped, in vain, will help shape a better future for them.
Many questions were asked then about the state of scholar transport. Others wondered if schools should not be given the responsibility to approve vehicles that transport learners, setting in place minimum standards. Questions were asked then about why vehicles that appear to be at the end of their lives seem to be regularly converted to transport learners.
The questions asked then about that terrible Osizweni accident were being asked this week in the light of the deaths of 13 people, most of whom were learners on their way to school, in Merafong. A bakkie is said to have plunged into a minibus on the N12 near Elands Road on the West Rand, causing the scholar transport vehicle to overturn and catch fire. Most of the children were from Rocklands Primary School and Laerskool Blyvooruitsig in Carletonville. The families are shattered. The community is in disbelief.
Gauteng department of education spokesperson Steve Mabona told our sister publication the Sowetan: “The department has already dispatched its psychosocial support team to the school to provide immediate support and to work closely with the school and affected families. Counselling services will be made available to all learners and staff members to help them cope with the emotional aftermath of this tragedy.”
Like the Osizweni incident and others after it, questions are being asked about the state of scholar transport. As always, it is after the fact. It is almost as if, as a people, we need something to hold on to, someone to blame, so that the pain can make sense to us. We ask questions about things we should have or could have worried about much earlier.
Theoretically, children are not supposed to be in scholar transport leaving townships in the early hours of the morning in search of a better education elsewhere. In practice, many parents feel compelled to sacrifice their meagre earnings to help create a future for their children they could only dream of.
We can point fingers at the department of education, or even premier Panyaza Lesufi, who has been an MEC for education in Gauteng, and accuse them of failing to ensure parents get the quality education that should obviate the need for transporting children to other schools. We could point fingers at parents for not making sure scholar buses are always in top shape and never overloaded.
But finger-pointing will achieve nothing, more so when it happens after such devastating loss of life. The youngest of those killed in Osizweni was six years old. They would be 32 this year.
Our country has, for many years, been losing its children on our killer roads. This should not be allowed to continue. The solution to this lies in getting basic services done. Schools, especially those in the townships, must be run properly. Roads must be maintained. Traffic officials must ensure adherence to regulations by all. If everyone did their bit, many lives could be saved.
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