GAUTENG.- Gauteng MEC for Roads and Transport, Kedibone Diale-Tlabela, hosted the Provincial Scholar Transport Stakeholder Engagement Meeting at the Johannesburg City Hall yesterday.

The engagement served as a critical platform to advance discussions on shared responsibilities in ensuring learner safety, strengthening compliance enforcement, and addressing operational challenges faced by scholar transport operators across the province. The meeting brought together scholar transport operators, industry stakeholders, and government representatives to reinforce the importance of operating within the legal framework and prioritising the safety of learners.

Diale-Tlabela emphasised that government is committed to supporting operators to regularise their operations. The MEC acknowledged that many scholar transport operators who depend on the sector for their livelihoods genuinely want to operate legally and safely.

“The operators want to be compliant. As the Department of Roads and Transport, our responsibility is to assist them and ensure they operate within the law. But we must meet each other halfway,” she said.

The MEC outlined immediate responsibilities that scholar transport operators must fulfil to advance their applications and ensure learner safety:

1. Contracts with Parents: Operators must enter into formal agreements with parents, including signed indemnity forms granting responsibility to transport learners.
2. School Endorsement Letters: Operators must obtain endorsement letters from School Governing Bodies (SGBs) or school principals confirming that they transport learners from those institutions. The Department has engaged the Gauteng Department of Education to facilitate this process.
3. Roadworthy Vehicles: All vehicles used for scholar transport must be roadworthy. The MEC stressed that there will be no compromise on vehicle safety. The Department has engaged private Vehicle Testing Stations (VTS) across Gauteng and negotiated reduced testing fees to make compliance more accessible.

“We have negotiated reduced prices at private VTS centres to support operators. There is no excuse for transporting children in unroadworthy vehicles,” MEC Diale-Tlabela said.

Since the department intensified its compliance drive last year, more than 1,500 scholar transport operators have applied for operating licences.
Of these, over 500 licences have already been issued, while 1,009 applications are currently in the finalisation stage. Some applications remain pending due to outstanding municipal concurrence, incomplete documentation, or changes in applicants’ contact details.

In the past two weeks alone, more than 600 application forms were collected from departmental offices, yet only 54 completed forms were returned.

The MEC urged operators experiencing challenges to return to the department for assistance.

“If you are struggling with the process, come back to us. Our doors are open. But we cannot finalise your operating licence without the required documents. Learner safety cannot be compromised,” she concluded.