The South African National Small Bus Operators Council (SANSBOC) in the North West has sought to reassure parents and legal guardians of hundreds of pupils who depend on scholar transport that their children will be taken to schools safely.The council’s comments come as the 2025 academic calendar gets underway across the country from today. SANSBOC Provincial Chairperson Final Kgodumo told YOU FM Newshour that they are ready to resume their duties, despite persistent challenges of late payments of their invoices by the Department of Transport Management in the province. “We are ready to transport learners as per agreement with the Department in spite of the challenges of late payments to our members,” said Kgodumo.According to Kgodumo, due to the late payments, most of their operators couldn’t afford to take their buses for routine maintenance as a norm during the December break. “We had series of meetings with the senior officials of the department to resolve this long-standing challenge (of late payments of our invoices).The department has agreed to settle the outstanding invoices staring this morning, Wednesday 15 January 2025, while other payments will be made on Thursday going forward,” explained Kgodumo. Meanwhile, he called on operators to ensure that their buses are roadworthy, to ferry learners to various schools across the province. “We don’t want to see any accidents of scholar transport this year, we have also appointed a team to ensure that all our scholar transports are in good condition and adhere to the rules of the road,” appealed Kgodumo. There have been several incidents involving scholar transport in the province, including service provider strikes, leaving learners stranded.
NW scholar transport ready to ferry learners, despite late payments
