62 EC pupils crammed into 33-seater bus
Department to terminate driver’s contract
ASCHOLAR transport bus driver was arrested last week after 62 pupils were crammed into a 33seater bus.
And, as if the trauma of a nightmare ride from school were not enough, the hungry and anxious pupils were abandoned for hours outside the East London Magistrate’s Court where the driver appeared for his case.
The incident happened on Friday shortly after the provincial scholar transport programme operator collected the pupils from Overton Primary School near Fort Grey at 1pm.
Filled way beyond its capacity, the bus was stopped at a provincial traffic department roadblock on the R72 near Igoda Mouth.
When traffic officers arrested the bus driver for overloading, they allowed him to drive the vehicle 20km to the city centre, where he was charged at the Fleet Street police station.
Inexplicably the bus, with all pupils on board, ended up outside the courthouse in Buffalo Street, around the corner from the police station.
A quick-thinking cook at Overton school, Noluthando Dike, said she was walking home when she saw the driver in trouble with traffic officials.
“I saw them squabble and jumped onto the bus just to see where the children were being taken.”
However, Dike did not have any airtime or money to buy the children food or call the teachers and officials.
“I sent my last ‘please call me’ to the principal who said he would arrange transport for the children to be collected.”
When the Daily Dispatch visited the court on Friday afternoon, the children were hanging around along Buffalo Street in front of the court.
Transport spokesman Ncedo Kumbaca confirmed the bus driver’s arrest.
“The bus had been carrying 62 pupils but was certified to carry 33.”
Kumbaca said the contract with the operator would be cancelled and replaced.
“This is a serious transgression caused by the scholar transport operator, because he has discarded our rules and gambled with the lives of children.”
However, Kumbaca disavowed any responsibility for the children’s safety after the driver was arrested.
He said it was the driver’s duty to ensure that an alternative transport arrangement had been made to take the children home.
“There are not enough traffic officials to transport children home and still resume their duties,” he said.
Other problems aside, the scholar transport programme has been criticised this year for omitting thousands of needy pupils.
In a recent court case, four schools successfully sued the transport and education departments to have their pupils included.
Judge Clive Plasket also gave the education department until mid-August to review its policy on scholar transport.
On Friday, Kuhle Velaphi, a Grade 5 pupil at Overton Primary, said the bus driver had asked traffic officers to drop the children off first, before he was arrested.
“We are hungry now and we don’t know how we are going to get home because the traffic officials did not allow him to take us home first.”
Grade 3 pupil Liyema Bliss was in tears, saying she wanted to go home.
“The sun is setting and it is getting colder by the minute and we have no idea how we are going to get home.”
The young group of pupils was spotted by Mabotwane security staff stationed at the court who initially thought the children were protesters.
Efforts to obtain comment from the school principal or other senior officials were unsuccessful. —