- At least 455 learners stranded as Mpumalanga Government cannot provide scholar transport
- DA to report Government to SAHRC for violating learners right of access to education
- Unemployed parents forced to contribute R50 for scholar transport
24 July 2026
Release: Immediate
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mpumalanga will write to the South African Human Right Commission (SAHRC) asking them to urgently intervene after we found out that the Provincial Government is in violation of the South African Constitutional for refusing to provide scholar transport to 455 learners.
It has come to the DA’s attention that 455 learners from Mkhulu Secondary School near Middelburg, have not been attending school since the re-opening of the third term on Tuesday because there is no scholar transport.
According to information gathered while doing an oversight recently, the DA found that the 455 learners out of the 1 140 enrolled at the school, cannot attend classes because the Mpumalanga Government can only provide eight out of the 15 required buses.
We have also learned that the School Governing Body (SGB) and the school had to pay between R80 000 to R100 000 a month in the last two school terms with an arrangement that some busses do two trips a day for the 455 learners to attend classes. But this arrangement was not perfect as learners arrived at school late.
Unfortunately, since the third terms started on Tuesday, those 455 learners could not attend classes because the school and the SGB have run out of cash to pay for the transport. Some of these learners are forced to travel more than 5-kilometers a day in risky conditions just to attend school.
The DA also learned that some the unemployed parents had no choice, but to make a R50 monthly contribution to help the SGB and school pay for the buses to transport the learners to school and back. This is clearly in violation of the learners’ constitutional right of access to basic education.
The DA will be raising this matter with the SAHRC because under Section 29(c) of the South African Constitution, failure to provide adequate Scholar Transport to learners directly violates their constitutional rights to basic education. The constitution mandates government to provide scholar transport to learners who are living more than 5km from school.
A landmark judgement by the Makhanda High Court in the Eastern Cape affirmed on 17 December 2024, affirmed that the provision of scholar transport is a mandatory and integral component of the right to education. The Court ruled that the government is obligated to provide scholar transport to learners to access basic education as enshrined in Section 29(1) of the Constitution.
The DA wants the SAHRC to act against the Mpumalanga Government based on the above judgement. The DA will continue fighting for Constitutional Rights to education for these learners.