The Eastern Cape Department of Transport took advantage of the December holidays to tighten up any loose ends pertaining to, and fine tuning the scholar transport service ahead of the 2022 academic year, which starts next week.
According to the spokesperson for the Department of Transport, Unathi Binqose, the aim was to ensure that the service was better than it was in the 2021 academic year, where there were some delays in the payment of operators, particularly in September.
“Department officials, under the stewardship of head of department, Mzi Mafani, had made it their mission to ensure that the service was running fairly smoothly, come January 19, when learners make their way back to class,” said Binqose.
Mafani said the work of reviewing the contracts and verifying that every operator was contracted legally and that they were complying with the requirements had been completed.
“That is the process that resulted in the delayed payments that were experienced in September. We have made some findings there and we are now writing to those who were incorrectly contracted.
“We are also in the process of ensuring that we are paying those that have passed the verification process the right amount for the service provided and any other things that may need to be looked at,” said Mafani.
The stringent verification processes are set to benefit the department in its entirety and possibly open up the programme to benefit more learners.
To turn the situation around and improve the service going forward, Mafani and his team have another meeting scheduled before the school year starts. This will both improve scholar transport and lead to better audit outcomes, he said.
