Parly reply reveals almost 10 000 school children are being illegally transported under KZN LTP
20 September 2021
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has established that KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) Department of Education (DoE) is causing the Department of Transport (DoT) to illegally transport almost 10 000 scholars to and from school as part of its Learner Transport Programme (LTP).
The shock finding was made by the DA after written parliamentary questions were submitted to KZN’s Education MEC, Kwazi Mshengu (view here) To further confirm the exact numbers and plans to overcome this, the DA also submitted written parliamentary questions to the MEC for Transport. (view here)
According to both MECs’ responses, they are aware of 9 673 learners who constitute as overloads. Equally damning is MEC Mshengu's admission that he is aware that this is unlawful in terms of public transport.
In KZN the estimated need is to transport 179 318 learners. This is a figure the DA believes is grossly understated because we know that an indeterminate number of learners use unsafe and informal transport over, which both Departments have no control.