KANYAMAZANE – “Special” transport is vehicles that pick up the learners at their school or gates at home, and drop them off at the other. This started last week on the first day of school when members of the association allegedly blocked the vehicles not affiliated with the association from delivering the learners to school.

They stood in front of these vehicles, then opened the doors and removed the children. They kept the other drivers from taking them to school as they claimed they were not allowed to do so without their vehicles being registered with Topstar.

According to the parents, they have made arrangements with this special transport to take their children to and from school, but to their surprise, they heard that they were not allowed to use it.

A concerned parent, Katalina Maphanga, said she does not want her child to use taxis to go to school, because they do not collect and drop them off at the gates.

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According to the chairperson of Topstar, John Mavundla, “Our taxi drivers were stopping them from transporting the learners, simply because their vehicles are not registered. We are not saying they are not allowed to transport them, we just need people whose vehicles are registered. We have, however, reached an agreement with the drivers that they will transport the learners until month-end, since parents have already paid for this month, and thereafter, hand the children to us,” he explained.

However, Sabelo Mdluli, a “special” transport driver, has denied the claim that an agreement was reached between them and the taxi drivers.

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“We did not reach an agreement with them, because even this week, they are still disrupting us when we are transporting the learners. We have a special permit to transport people. I do not understand what is it that they want from us. Transporting people is our bread and butter. It is how we make money because we don’t want to end up stealing due to hunger. Even if we give them the children, they will not manage, because they still need to transport commuters in the morning. They must let us do our job in peace.”