Cape Town - The ANC in the province has hailed a decision by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to include additional learners and extend return distances on learner transport bus routes in Overberg as “a victory for the children of farm workers”.
The Education Department recently announced that the contract on route WCE 315 will be terminated at the end of the first school quarter of 2021 and 103 learners would be accommodated on alternative routes WCE 081 and WCE 585, which would be extended by a 14 km return distance.
Education MEC Debbie Schäfer’s spokesperson Kerry Mauchline said: "The initial application received by the department requested the inclusion of 54 additional learners on route WCE 315 and the extension of the return distance by 101km.
“During the processing of the application it was noticed that routes WCE 081 and WCE 585 already run along the requested extension part of route WCE 315 (all the pick-up points along the requested extension are on routes WCE 081 and WCE 585),” said Mauchline.
Route WCE 315 will now be terminated at the end of the first school quarter in 2021, and the learners on it will be transferred to WCE 08.
Community leader Dion Potberg said previously parents were struggling financially as they made use of private transportation.
“We struggled with private transport with 13 parents paying more than R10 000 a month to get children to school, but we never stopped. A lot of households are headed by single parents that are seasonal farm workers. We want to ensure that we do away with the system where the child of a farm worker also ends up being a worker in the farm," he said.
ANC spokesperson on Education Khalid Sayed welcomed the "compromise" by the WCED and called for all learners to be accommodated. Khalid said the move brings to a close a protracted battle waged by the local community who fought for guaranteed and sustainable transport for the learners of Emil Weder Secondary School in Genadendal.
Sayed also called on the WCED to consider adopting this approach to other routes where there have been challenges for many learners who travel long distances especially in communities where there is an established route nearby.
Cape Argus