From School to the grave, on the back of a bakkie

Seven children died, and shouldn’t have. If ever I had a boggle, this is it! And I am appalled at the fact that we allow this kind of tragedy to play out.

The facts of the matter are: these seven children died whilst being transported from school on the back of an open bakkie. That’s the one fact. The other fact is it is illegal to transport children on the back of open bakkie. It’s also probably illegal to transport any human in this manner, never mind twenty-four children. The legality aside, my opinion is that it is inhumane to transport humans in this way. 

But why does this happen? 

In November 2014 government released a Draft Policy on Learner Transport. So I skimmed it, all 103 pages of it, and in a nutshell what I take away is that the policy’s aim is to provide guidelines and standards for safe, equitable and accessible transport for learners from Grades R to 12, and more to the point, those who do not have access to a public transport infrastructure. The children, the victims of the incident in which they lost their lives, are precisely the kind of child that the policy seeks to protect. It appears that the policy is well and good but something somewhere has gone horribly gone.

And this is by no means a new problem. In 2006, for example, Michael Rogan did a study on learner transport as part of his Masters in Social Development. Again I skimmed this lengthy thesis, but his opening comment really hits home (sadly it appears he was beating this drum for a while and nobody has been listening). 

So he says: “The journey to school for a significant number of South African learners is characterised by long travel times, unsafe modes of travel and exposure to weather and traffic related dangers. A review of the literature suggests that poor access to schools impedes the accumulation of human capital and the right to a basic education.”

He goes on to say: “South Africa has a progressive constitution that places a strong emphasis on promoting the rights of the most vulnerable members of society”

So given that the problem has been highlighted from several quarters and that a draft policy is in place, why are we dragging our heels in implementing these clearly very sound recommendations.

Just having done some basic research into this issue it is no wonder that the public have such difficulty participating meaningfully in the making of laws and passing of policies because it requires, first of all, a lot of patience to trawl through hundreds of pages of these documents, and secondly, you need to decipher the complicated legalese type writing. Thankfully, I’m a law graduate. 

The truth is: if I was in charge the policy would be just one paragraph and would basically read something like: “Show up on time in a vehicle that is safe and roadworthy, the driver is sober, competent and caring, and the road he or she must travel is free of danger.” 

This is not a big ask. 

Believe it or not, the problem goes beyond kids on the back of bakkie It’s not the only issue. There are a number of other impediments to getting our children to schools and educated.

The majority of children in this country are riding the gauntlet is what they’re doing. There are so many difficulties and dangers they face just getting themselves to the classroom. And perhaps one of the biggest reasons for them even hopping willingly on to the back of the bakkie is  that they want to avoid the 5-kilometre walk in the blazing heat. 

Then, not only are the roads bad, in a lot of cases they have to cross rivers and bush to get to school. This is unacceptable. 

And then I’d like to know who operates these bakkies and on whose authority. In this case, it is believed that the vehicle was being driven but the regular driver’s daughter. And whether is she was in possession of a valid driver’s license was called into question. Why are these questions being asked after the fact? Where were the checks and balances before twenty four children got on to the back of that bakkie? 

So what is the solution really?  Even my stripped down, one-paragraph policy that I made up sounds great but how does one make it practical. There is no point in having reams and reams of policy if it is not going to be put into practice. And particularly in far flung areas it has to be, in my estimation, a community effort. The local police, parents, community leaders, the roads departments, school leaders and the children themselves need to work together to ensure that getting to school is safe and hassle free. 

Let’s face it if we wait for government we will wait forever. I am well aware that a poor community might not have the resources to build decent roads, schools near where people live, buy taxis and build bridges; but we should do what we can, where we can. This might mean parents or community leaders vetting the contractors more closely. After all they are placing their children’s lives in their hands every day for 200 days a year. Can we really afford to be complacent? 

You can email your thoughts to Terence Pillay at [email protected] or Follow him on Twitter: @terencepillay1 and engage with him there.