It should not take a tragedy for government to act. Yet that is exactly what happened with the recent blitz on scholar transport after the Vanderbijlpark incident. Only once children were put in danger did inspections intensify and roadblocks appear.
It is a response South Africans have seen too many times before. The checks and compliance efforts now under way are necessary. No one disputes that.
But they come after years of warnings from parents, transport associations and community organisations about unsafe vehicles and unqualified drivers. These risks were well known. They were simply ignored until a crisis forced action.
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This is the real failure. The current crackdown sends a message that safety matters. But messages fade.
Roadblocks come and go and cameras move on. Without lasting change, unsafe vehicles will return to the roads and the same dangers will remain. Scholar transport is not a luxury or a side issue.
For many families, it is the only way children can get to school. When it fails, education fails with it. Despite this, oversight has been weak and responsibility has been passed around between different levels of government.
Some did their best under difficult conditions, but others cut corners and put children’s lives at risk. There is also a painful reality that cannot be ignored. When vehicles are taken off the road without alternatives in place, it is not officials who suffer, it is parents who panic and children who miss school.
In a country where too many learners are already falling behind, lost school days are not a small matter. Enforcement that forgets this does more harm than good. What South Africa needs is not another short-term blitz.
It needs prevention. That means knowing who is transporting children and under what conditions. It means regular vehicle checks, proper driver training and clear accountability between the departments responsible for transport and education.
Most of all, it means working with communities and operators instead of only showing up when something goes wrong. The Vanderbijlpark incident should be a line in the sand. It should be the moment when government chooses to protect children before tragedy strikes, not after.
If learner safety truly matters, the test will not be how tough government looks this month. It will be whether years from now parents can send their children to school without fear, trusting that their safety does not depend on disaster to trigger action.
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