Cape Town - More than 2 700 learners from 87 schools were prevented from attending classes on Thursday due to the continuation of an illegal blockade by the Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta).
Education MEC David Maynier said: “This includes 2 465 learners who would ordinarily travel to school on our contracted Learner Transport Scheme, which is now being prevented from operating in an attempt to muscle in on learner transport contracts.”
Since the start of the week, thousands of learners from mostly Khayelitsha and Mfuleni have been prevented from accessing their schools following threats by Codeta.
Codeta warned scholar transport operators that its members would stop and search vehicles, as well as turning them back, should they be caught on the roads.
On Wednesday, protests by learners and parents at the Site C taxi rank, Khayelitsha, erupted after learners were removed from vehicles or turned back.
The blockade came into effect on Monday, which saw more than 5 000 learners absent on Monday, 4 200 on Tuesday and 4 500 on Wednesday.
In a correspondence on Wednesday, Codeta said it, with the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata), had approached the Western Cape Education Department over a partnership regarding scholar transport in May last year.
No further meetings resulted from the initial one, Codeta said.
“We would like all the people who transport our children to school to start doing so. This is in exception of the buses and in this case, Codeta will provide transport to these children free of charge from February 16 until February 23. This is to give the WCED (time) to resume the talks as soon as possible.”
Cata spokesperson Nkululeko Sityebi said that under Cata, children have not been prevented from going to school. Maynier slammed the associations for attempting to extort money from the department, stating that the associations do not want to follow proper tender processes for contracts.
Maynier said the department would not be meeting any associations until the blockade was terminated.
The Western Cape Scholar Transport Association confirmed that they were able to transport learners on Thursday. The association has about 100 operators, but is not part of the WCED’s Learner Transport Scheme.
Khayelitsha Community Policing Forum cluster chairperson Funeka Soldaat said: “It frustrated not only parents and learners, but it angered the community, because nobody understood the frustration of Codeta and why it had to affect everybody. With the engagement later then everybody began to be aware of their grievances.”