By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI

3 April 2025- The SANSBOCNW said it wishes to inform all stakeholders and the community of the North West that, the North West Scholar Transport is facing an unprecedented crisis. The SANSBOCNW said, despite previous communications, the non-payment issue persists and the situation has worsened.

The SANSBOCNW provincial secretary, Washington Ntozini said they have engaged with the North West Department of Community Safety and Transport Management (COSATMA) leadership and management, the Office of the Premier, and the Portfolio Committee on Community Safety and Transport Management. Ntozini said the department acknowledged a budget shortfall and committed to making payments for outstanding scholar transport services through a virement budget of R53 million before the financial system closed.

“However, despite this commitment, the financial system closed without payment, leaving operators with no choice, but to halt services. Most operators remain unpaid from December 2024 to March 2025. Buses were not serviced or maintained during the December 2024 school holidays due to non-payment.

“During the January 2025, school reopening, most operators managed to render services under difficult financial constraints after COSATMA committed to resolving the non-payment issue. However, operators faced harassment from law enforcement, including heavy traffic fines and operating license fines delayed by the Provincial Regulatory Entity under COSATMA,” he said.

Ntozini further said the SANSBOCNW is disappointed that department officials issued fault penalties during the Human Rights Commission hearing, duplicating law enforcement actions and claiming to enforce SLA conditions, while ignoring the department’s violation of the same conditions by failing to pay operators within 30 days. He said scholar transport crisis requires urgent intervention.

“Operators cannot render services when schools reopen on 8 April 2025, due to lack of funds for diesel, unmaintained buses, and unpaid drivers. Most operators face financial constraints and bankruptcy.

“We have reason to believe that the department’s management plan is to frustrate current operators, causing them to fail and replacing them with outside operators from the panel. This crisis is unprecedented and operators have never gone on strike before,” said Ntonzi.

He said all operators are invited to attend an urgent meeting on 4 April 2025, in Mahikeng (venue and time to be communicated).

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