The Inkatha Freedom Party supports the NGO, Equal Education for putting pressure to the KZN Department of Education to speed up the process of providing scholar transport in Nquthu.
“Yes, indeed we fully support the concerns raised by Equal Education because they are raising vital issues which affects children in Nquthu. We have also raised several concerns about the failure by the KZN Department of Education to address the issue of scholar transport. This is undermining the learner’s right to learn because as they travel long distances without transport this affects them academically,” said IFP KZN Provincial Spokesperson on Education, Mrs Thembeni KaMadlopha-Mthethwa MPL.
“We are very perturbed by the utterances made by Kwazi Mthethwa, spokesperson for the KZN Department of Education where he accused Equal Education of using the plight of poor pupils to attract publicity after its members staged a protest outside the department’s offices in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday and another outside the Durban City Hall on Wednesday. This proves that there are some people who don’t understand the plight facing our rural children and who do not care about children walking long distances to access education just because their children might be learning in multi-racial schools and they drive them to school and pick them up later,” continued Mrs Madlopha-Mthethwa.
“The KwaZulu-Natal Departments of Education and Transport formed a task team to fast track the implementation of the pupil transport policy in the province after the crash near Mooi River in 2014 where five children died and 24 were injured but we haven’t heard anything about this since. We demand that both the MEC’s must tell us what progress has been made in the implementation of the pupil transport policy in the province. It was announced that this team will be jointly led by the former head of department for education, Dr Nkosinathi Sishi and transport head Sbu Gumbi. Now it’s high time for the Provincial Government to deliver on its promises,” concluded Mrs Madlopha-Mthethwa.
The IFP demands that the KZN Department of Education must provide learners with scholar transport irrespective of whether they are from Nquthu or somewhere else.
Issued by:
Mrs Thembeni Madlopha-Mthethwa MPL
IFP KZN Provincial Spokesperson on Education
071 884 3844 / 079 114 3015