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President Cyril Ramaphosa.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says parents shouldn’t have to bury their children.
This as the country mourns the deaths of 12 learners who were killed when the scholar transport minibus they were travelling in crashed into a truck in Vanderbijlpark, south of Johannesburg on Monday.
Three of the learners are still in hospital.
Ramaphosa was speaking on the sidelines of the Basic Education Sector Lekgotla in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg.
“Children are not meant to be buried by their parents. Children must bury their parents rather. We cannot accept that young lives are put at risk in such a horrific way as they seek the growth and enrichment that education should provide. We cannot let this tragedy just pass we must draw a number of lessons and we also need to act now together to ensure that scholar transport is safe and is also reliable.”
Related Video | Vanderbijlpark | 13 learners die in a scholar transport crash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_HTO8oFVzY
Ramaphosa says government must intervene to ensure safer transport for learners.
The Lekgotla takes place annually and review progress and challenges facing the education sector. The theme this year is. ” Strengthening foundations for a resilient and Future-ready Education system”.
“We have inherited a system where there has been no real public transport for children to go to school. And so the taxi system then integrated itself in transporting children. And it’s been good because we have been able to transport children to school. The government now needs to sit back and talk also to the taxi owners and drivers, and see the extent to which we can work together to improve scholar transport.”
