Minister vows to improve school transport
The Department of Basic Education has vowed to intensify efforts to improve learner transport in disadvantaged communities.
Speaking during the memorial service for the 20 victims of a horror crash near Bronkhorstspruit, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga promised that government will attend to the issue.
The mass funerals for the victims, 18 of whom were children, will take place at the weekend.
The children died when a minibus and a truck crashed on the notorious R25 road between Verena and Bronkhorstspruit. The children were heading home after their first week back at school.
Motshekga, who has also lost a child, says it's never easy to ask a parent to let go.
"Sometimes we don't have a choice. We just have to accept what faces you and tell yourself that children are borrowed to us," she said.
Motshekga says improved policy is one way government can ensure the safety of learners.
"If the state can't provide a school within a 5 kilometre radius of your home, it is obliged to provide an alternative - which is scholar transport," she said.