The KwaZulu-Natal premier candidate of RISE Mzansi, Nonkululeko Hlongwane-Mhlongo, promised access to school transport for learners in rural KZN areas, who walk long distances to school at the launch of ‘Phakama KwaZulu-Natal Plan’ last Thursday, in Durban.
Children Count, a data and advocacy project of the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town, ranked KZN as the highest province with children walking more than 30 minutes to school in 2022.
Out of 8.3 million primary school children in the country, only 21% of children walk long distances to school in KZN. Meanwhile, of the 4.5 million secondary learners, only 27% of them in the province walk more than 30 minutes to school.
The majority of these children live in rural areas: 19% of secondary school age children in the former homelands and 25% living on farms travel far to school, compared to 11% of children living in urban areas.
Speaking to The Star, Hlongwane-Mhlongo said her governance will develop and maintain underdeveloped rural roads to deter road accidents. Many of these roads are unworthy and not tarred.
She said funding for school transport will be sourced from the provincial State budget as part of public services provision, and stakeholders in the private sector.
“Funding will be sourced from the fiscus. In communities where there are large private sector investments, such as Richards Bay, we will partner with those private sector players to provide assets such as buses as part of their corporate social responsibility and community support programmes,” said Hlongwane-Mhlongo.
Moreover, drivers of school transport will undergo psychological and physical training to ensure child safety. By this, they will assume a loco parentis role towards children, where they are equipped to execute the responsibility with sensitivity and care it demands.
There is a growing trend of cases of children being raped by their transport drivers. Earlier this month, a 5-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a driver in Limpopo, while two other children were raped and drugged by their driver in KZN last year.
Asked how her government will prevent future similar cases and stabilise the safety of children, the premier candidate explained, male drivers will be vetted through police clearance certificate and the National Register for Sex Offenders.
“RISE Mzansi will ensure that public school drivers undergo due diligence, including checking if they (men) are on the offenders list. Sensitivity training will be extended to both drivers and children, so they are able to report incidences of sexual impropriety early on. We will establish an anonymous hotline for children to report in real time the inappropriate behaviour from drivers,” said Hlongwane-Mhlongo.
Although RISE Mzansi is not discriminative toward gender, the party will establish a hiring bias towards women to bridge the gap of unemployed women in rural areas and provide a safe haven for children while being transported to school and back home.
The party’s hiring bias is part of its policy to empower single women-headed households.
“We are acutely aware of the gender inequities in our rural communities.To counteract the scourge of gender-based violence, while narrowing the unemployment gap, RISE Mzansi will have a bias towards hiring of women drivers and particularly those who are single mothers.”
However, she added that her cabinet will hire men for gender representation. “RISE Mzansi will prioritise the hiring of women to create employment and to foster a conducive environment in the public-school transport. However, in line with our constitution and to foster a representativity, we will also hire men and offer them the necessary training to mitigate sexual offences towards children,” said Hlongwane-Mhlongo.
The Star
hope.mafu@inl.co.za