Over the weekend, South Africans watched small coffins lowered into the ground. Fourteen learners from Vanderbijlpark were buried after a school transport crash that should never have happened. As with so many similar tragedies, the first explanation offered was driver negligence.
But when children keep dying on their way to school, the problem is no longer just about who was behind the wheel. It is about the system that allowed it to happen again.
As I watched the funerals, I kept asking myself a question that rarely gets answered after these crashes: who is actually responsible for keeping children safe on their way to school?
On paper, South Africa does have a framework for scholar transport. There is a national school transport policy. There is the National Road Traffic Act. There is the National Land Transport Act. These rules are meant to work together to regulate vehicles, drivers and behaviour on the road.
In reality, the system is fragmented and poorly coordinated. Responsibility is spread across multiple departments that do not always communicate with each other and often fail to take ownership when something goes wrong. Scholar transport sits between the Department of Transport and the Department of Education, with taxi associations, private operators, schools, parents and communities all operating in the same space.
That gap between policy and practice is where children are being lost.
Peggie Maar from road safety organisation WheelWell says one of the most troubling realities is how little many drivers and operators know about what the law actually requires of them.
“What I found is that drivers were not even aware of the compliance that there is,” she says. “Every driver and operator should have a handbook that clearly explains the rules, how to comply, and what the consequences are.”
Compliance, however, cannot be demanded in isolation. Maar says authorities often blame driver error while failing to acknowledge the state’s own role in making compliance possible.
“You can’t cite compliance and driver error when you have done nothing to make sure that the licences that are requested are being issued,” she says. “This is a systemic failure and it needs a systemic fix.”
Licensing backlogs, delays and allegations of corruption mean many operators struggle to obtain the permits required to operate legally. According to Maar, this is not a side issue. It is central to the safety crisis.
“The backlog in licences must be cleared with absolute urgency,” she says. “There must be no corruption in the licensing departments and no corruption in the enforcement of school transport.”
Beyond enforcement and licensing, there is a deeper governance problem. Scholar transport exists in a space where no single authority takes full responsibility. When something goes wrong, blame shifts easily between departments.
“All of these things are supposed to work together,” Maar explains, “but because we don’t know who is responsible for what, a lot of things fall through.”
This lack of clarity has created what experts describe as a shadow transport system, where informal arrangements between parents, schools and private drivers operate with limited oversight.
“Even private school transport needs a formal contract that clearly states the school, the driver, the vehicle and the responsibilities,” Maar says. “But because nobody knows their rights or the consequences, there is a complete disconnect.”
In this vacuum, enforcement has quietly shifted onto parents and school communities. Parents are increasingly expected to monitor vehicle safety, document problems and escalate complaints.
“Parents and school governing bodies are really the eyes and ears of law enforcement,” Maar says. “They need to gather information, report it, and insist on timelines and action.”
While community vigilance matters, it should never be the primary safety net keeping children alive.
The president and the minister of basic education have both called for changes to the scholar transport sector. But unless legislation is finalised, responsibilities are clearly defined and enforcement becomes real, these calls risk fading once public attention moves on.
Until that changes, children in South Africa will continue to be placed at risk on the very journeys meant to take them safely to school.
