The DA in Limpopo extends our sincere condolences to the family and friends of the learners and driver who have reportedly lost their lives today on the road between Jupiter and Diana villages in the Mashashane area. Our thoughts and prayers are with the parents, family and friends of the deceased and we wish a speedy recovery to the injured learners.
This follows reports of an unfortunate head-on collision accident between a scholar transport bus and a minibus also carrying learners. We call on MEC for Education, Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya and her counterpart in the Department of Transport, Susani Violet Mathye, to prioritise an investigation into this scholar transport crash to establish the complete facts.
We cannot keep losing our learners, and we need to make changes to scholar transport that ensure the safety of our children. Last week a public enquiry on scholar transport was held, involving both the Limpopo Departments of Education and Transport aimed at strengthening legislature oversight to deliver safe, reliable, accessible and dignified scholar transport for every learner in Limpopo. Lerule -Ramakhanya and Mathye must urgently action the undertakings from this enquiry to hopefully prevent future incidents.
The safety of learners needs to be prioritised, and accidents like this should be prevented through strict compliance with safety measures aimed at safely transporting learners. Limpopo law enforcement officers need to be more visible and enforce traffic laws at all times in order to make our roads safer and hopefully avoid such unfortunate tragedies.
Our LGE Manifesto is clear that a government that works for all must put the safety of our children first, ensuring that essential services like scholar transport are safe, reliable and properly managed.
The DA will continue to fight for a safe and secure scholar transport system that ensures safe transportation and a secure future for Limpopo learners