NGO Equal Education have accused the KZN government of underbudgeting scholar transport for the last few years.
|||Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal Transport Department on Tuesday insisted the demand for scholar transport in the province far exceeded the funding available for pupils qualifying for the service.
However, a non-governmental organisation, Equal Education, has scoffed at the provincial government’s lamentations, saying it was to blame for the inadequate budget.
It accused the province of failing to motivate to the Treasury for the required funding based on real needs analysis and cost implications.
On Tuesday, the department presented its R9.5 billion budget to the finance portfolio committee in Pietermaritzburg. The department’s budget showed that R186 million had been allocated for scholar transport in the 2016/17 financial year - up from R185m allocated in 2015/17.
A document presented to the committee blamed funding challenges for the inability to deliver “full scope” to all “beneficiary” schools and pupils. It also said 316 schools and 43 990 pupils would benefit from the programme in the new financial year.
But these figures contradict projections contained in the provincial Treasury’s “green book” - a budget document spelling out the allocations for envisaged expenditure on various projects.
The “green book” states that 326 schools and 44 490 pupils were to benefit from the scholar transport.
Despite the conflicting projections and the province’s failure to motivate for more funding from Treasury, MEC Willies Mchunu told the committee that if there was one decision the legislature took that had serious implications, it was on scholar transport.
“It is so full of problems. You do not know where to start and finish,” Mchunu said.
He said the programme “in a province as big as KZN, with such big rural areas, needs budgeting strategies of its own”.
Mchunu told of reports he received from principals and communities about schools that should be benefiting from the programme, but were not.
“What we have at the moment and pay for learner transport is just beyond the chunk of money (we have),” Mchunu said. “I don’t know what research; what analysis; what informed it.”
“Those are questions I have. It is a programme that needs to be assessed and researched,” he told lawmakers.
Sibusiso Gumbi, head of the department, said if KZN was to fund all deserving pupils, it would require R4.5bn.
“The red light indicates you have more demand than supply in terms of funding. We will not be able to cope when it comes to learner transport,” Gumbi said.
But, Sherylle Dass, a senior attorney with Equal Education, said KZN had over the years been underbudgeting for scholar transport and also failed to make a motivation to Treasury.
“They don’t understand the full extent of the need for scholar transport in KZN. Their estimate (to Parliament’s Basic Education portfolio committee) is 71 000 (pupils requiring transport),” she said.
Dass also said KZN’s estimate of the number of needy pupils was just a fraction of those who should benefit.
“We maintain that there is much more. Their figures are underestimated. It is not an excuse not to budget properly.”
Daily News