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Gauteng Pupils Left Stranded as Scholar Transport Operators Down Tools Over R450 Million in Unpaid Bills · Drive with John Perlman

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Right, let's focus our attention now on something away from
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the elections, but very much part of the concerns that
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: people have in regard to the future of their children.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: And we're focusing our attention now on Scholar Transport. That's
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: because there appears to be a dispute between the Gauteng
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Department of Education and the Gauteng Small Bus Operators Council.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: They are the people who are involved in establishing contracts
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and arrangements with educational authorities. And then based on that,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: more than 2,000 vehicles go out each day to move vehicles.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: children up and down so what's gone wrong and crucially
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: how can it be fixed particularly at this crucial time
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: of exams for matrix above all but for all learners
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: as well paul zikali is secretary general of the gauteng
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: small bus operators council and joins us now mr zikali
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: good afternoon to you what what is at the root
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: of your dispute with the education authorities.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Good afternoon to you, John, as well as our listeners
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: at home. Maybe to put it in perspective, the major
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: issue has been the delays in payments and extended periods
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: where people have not been paid for periods extending above
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: three months. And this has been consistent since October 2024.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: And I think the greatest challenge has been What has
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: been said to us is that there is challenges with
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: the fiscals. The gouting tolls have taken away a large
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: chunk of the budget. They are paying close to $ 5
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: billion towards the tolls that we are not paying as individuals,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: as the citizens of Gauteng. So as a consequence, each
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: department is here to cut back on its budget. That
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: has affected all payments in terms of... servicing the current
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: contracts that the department has, or the province has, because
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: it's much wider than the Department of Education. Yes.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Yes, so that is basically the crux of the challenges,
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: because we have reached a point, I think, where we
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: had also requested a rate increase, because we haven't had
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: a rate increase to offset the fuel price hikes since 2022.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: So all the increases that we've had, when we got
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: contracted our services, the fuel was about half of what
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: it is today, what it's costing us today. So a
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: greater part of our operation is costing much higher now.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Indeed. And Mr. Zikali, you are the Gauteng small bus
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: operators with the emphasis for the moment on the word small.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I would have thought your members don't have any great
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: margin for carrying costs like this. I mean, have some
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: of your colleagues gone out of business?
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: We have guys that have gone out of business. We
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: have guys that have handed back the contracts. to the
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: department to say, listen, I can't continue because this is
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: not sustainable. And I think the current situation is a
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: case in point where it got to a point because
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: of the increases in fuel prices, even the suppliers of
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: the fuel are refusing to increase the facilities because one,
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: you are asking for a facility whereas you are not
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: able to maintain steady payments. And in the same line,
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: you are now actually spending much more to offer the
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: same service that you're getting paid, the same amount that
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: you're getting paid in 2022.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: The implications of this really are quite grave, both for
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: people who've set up businesses to offer scholar transport, but
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: also the implications, I would have thought, for many listeners.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: And if you've been directly affected, maybe you're a principal
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: at a school, a teacher, parents, there's a whole family
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: of people who get affected by something like this. And
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: to my mind, at least, to say we're not getting
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: money from e-tolls cannot possibly be an explanation.