Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says six provincial departments have not requested additional funding to cover a combined shortfall of R639 million for school transport.
Motshekga revealed this in a written parliamentary reply to a DA question. She said the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and North West did not request additional funding to transport schoolchildren.
“Information from the said provinces indicates they have not as yet requested additional funding from the National Treasury to cover the shortfall in their 2017-18 scholar transport budgets,” she said.
“However, discussions are under way within the provincial departments to seek mechanisms to address the shortages from their respective provincial budgets.”
During a presentation to the portfolio committee in May, the department reported that a total of 556 294 pupils needed transport.
Gauteng led with highest number of pupils set to benefit from the transport with 109 618, followed by Eastern Cape with 78061 pupils, Mpumalanga 60119 and Western Cape 58 217 pupils. The other provinces, including KwaZulu-Natal, had a number of pupils on the programme ranging between 11929 and 47747.
But, Motshekga recently said there were a total of 465977 pupils using school transport as of April. This transport, funded to the tune of R2.3billion in the last financial year, is funded from the provincial equitable share.
Its budget is not ring-fenced, a move that has prompted pressure group Equal Education to campaign for a special grant to be created to enable the programme to be adequately funded.
In a separate parliamentary reply to a question from Ian Ollis, Motshekga said the demand for scholar transport was expected to decrease between 2016-17 and 2017-18 in the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape.
She put this down to rationalisation, mergers and closure of some schools as well as the verification of pupils who qualify to benefit from the service.
“Gauteng is experiencing an influx of learners from different provinces, and in the demand for learner transport.”