OFM News had earlier reported that the effectiveness of the provincial government’s scholar transport programme is under the spotlight after it was reported by a ministerial task team assigned to resolve issues in the province that over thousands of learners in the province are left destitute, despite the fact that over R374 million was spent by the Education Department in the province towards the scholar transport programme.

Nzimande touched on this matter while responding to questions posed to him during parliament’s ad hoc Inter-Ministerial Task Team (IMTT) that was assigned to resolve problems found in five government departments in the North West after President Cyril Ramaphosa placed the province under administration last year.

Nzimande said the issue the NW government has with regards to scholar transport was not unique to other provinces in the country. “Other issues that arise from the matter pertained to the fact that there were discrepancies between the number of learners on the provincial education’s list and those on the provincial transport department’s list, which speaks to possible corruption and inflating of numbers.

Additionally, he said going forward he would engage with Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, to deal with the issue of scholar transport on a national scale. Meanwhile, Motshekga, who also forms part of the team, said her department suspected that people who did not qualify for scholar transport had benefitted from this programme in the North West and her department would be working on an audit looking into how many benefitted as well as who benefitted.

She said she hopes this audit report would be available by the end of February. Nzimande and Motshekga touched on this matter while responding to questions posed to him during a meeting where the IMTT was reporting back on progress made in the province since it was placed under administration. The pair form part of a team of ten ministers who are currently working with a team of administrators and the provincial government’s health, education, transport, public works, and premier’s office.

OFM News