Most parents do not choose unsafe transport. They choose from what exists. They choose under pressure – of work that cannot wait, of distances that cannot be walked, of a country where school transport exists, but remains fragmented and inaccessible for many families.
Safety has become something you buy if you can, and gamble on if you cannot. This reflects inequality, not parental neglect or a lack of care. Tonight, many parents will lie awake thinking about tomorrow morning – about uniforms laid out, bags by the door, and the moment their child disappears down the road in someone else’s vehicle.
After the crash that took place recently, that moment carries a weight it should never have had. At a time of such devastating loss, language can feel thin. Safeguarding asks us to look forward – to think about what must exist before harm happens, not only how we respond after it does.
Read Full Article on Daily Maverick
[paywall]
The recent school transport crash in the Vaal, which killed at least 13 learners, is devastating, and it is not an isolated incident. National reporting has shown that between 2018 and 2022, more than 800 school children died in school-transport-related accidents across SA, according to media analysis drawing on national data. Children under 14 make up more than 10% of all road fatalities, based on national road safety figures.
These are not rare tragedies. They expose how routine journeys to school have been made unsafe by design, not by chance. Safeguarding is about care – and it is about justice.
If safety is treated as a right, it cannot depend on income or luck. When families are left to manage risks created by weak systems, those risks land most heavily on those with the least room to absorb them. Care is present – yet it is being asked to carry what systems should be holding.
Some parents can speak up safely. Others cannot. For many – especially those who are poor, migrant, undocumented or marginalised – asking questions can cost them the only transport their child has.
Silence, in these contexts, is survival. That is why safeguarding cannot depend on individual courage alone. Responsibility must grow with power.
Those with more safety, status, institutional backing or voice have a greater duty to act – not because others lack care or capacity, but because many are already carrying responsibility under conditions that crush their ability to act safely. Safeguarding is not mysterious. It has a shape.
It means a vehicle that is roadworthy and not overloaded. It means a driver who is licensed, trained, vetted and sober – a safe person, capable and intentional about acting in a child’s best interests while that child is in their care. It means seatbelts that work, doors that close, and children who are not stacked on top of one another.
It means a name, a number and a route that someone is responsible for. Road accident figures tell only part of the story. They do not account for the risks children face when they travel with adults who have not been properly vetted, trained or monitored. There are no reliable national statistics tracking abuse specifically in school transport – not because it does not happen, but because it is rarely recorded as a transport issue.
[/paywall]
